Abstract

SuperCLASS: A Weak Lensing Study using e-MERLIN observations
e-Merlin: Scientific Results and Facility Development
Constantinos Demetroullas
The University of Manchester
The Super-CLuster Assisted Shear Survey is a study aiming to detect the effects of Weak Gravitational Lensing in a super cluster region containing the ABELL clusters 1005, 0968, 0981, 0998 and 1006. The main aim of the survey is to detect cosmic shear in the radio and from the gained knowledge help in the design of similar studies with the SKA. Additionally the survey aims to use polarisation information to reduce the noise and contamination in the signal due to galaxy intrinsic alignments. The study is also designed to investigate the polarisation properties of AGN and star-forming galaxies and cosmic magnetism in clusters and super-clusters. The collected data can be used for strong lensing studies. Finally the project, using multi frequency data of the region, aims to probe star formation and AGN activity. SuperCLASS will cover ~1sd of the sky achieving a sensitivy of ~4μJy/beam. The current stage of the radio observations is that 120 hours worth of data, out of the ~850 in total, have been collected, with a portion of it already processed. The SuperCLASS region has also been observed with LOFAR and GMRT. The SuperCLASS proposal was awarded priority B with the VLA at L band and A configuration. Observations will commerce this summer. Optical data from the Subaru Suprime CAM that will be used primarily for assigning photometric redshifts to the detected radio galaxies will be collected in April. SuperCLASS is an experiment designed to show the advantages and complementary nature of radio weak lensing compared to similar studies in the optical/NIR.

Schedule

09:00 - 10:30
09:48
Thursday

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