Clusters of Galaxies: The Universe's Kaleidoscopes

由于物质在100-500kpc的尺度上的强烈集中，星系团充当着宇宙中最强大的引力透镜。对于优选集中在中心的X射线选择的团簇来说尤其如此。我们已经编目了0.2和0.6之间的200个X射线亮度最高的星系团。我们有HST、Chandra、JVLA和Herschel的绝大多数数据。我们有一个正在进行的VLT MUSE调查，它有超过120个这样的星系团的观测，以确定最亮的透镜来源以及关于星系团成员的光谱信息。这些数据限制了背景、透镜星系的性质，从而限制了星系团本身的暗物质分布，并为VLT、ALMA和JWST的后续行动提供了丰富的目标遗产。特别是，这些观测确定了具有最亮线条的系统，这对成功的声光辅助后续行动至关重要，后续行动将把光细分为更多的空间元素。这个项目的重点是最亮的透镜源，它限制了星系团的引力质量，也限制了透镜星系的性质。通过我们的缪斯调查提供的史无前例的统计数据，我们将用数百个透镜光源的样本和少数可以用其他望远镜跟踪的最高放大系统来解决广泛的天体物理学问题。

Clusters of galaxies act as the most powerful gravitational lenses in the Universe due to the strong concentration of matter on scales of 100-500 kpc. This is especially true for X-ray selected clusters which are preferentially centrally concentrated. We have catalogued the 200 most X-ray luminous clusters between 0.2 < z < 0.6. and we have HST, Chandra, JVLA and Herschel data for the large majority. We have an on-going VLT MUSE survey that has observations of over 120 of these clusters to identify the brightest lensed sources as well as spectral information on cluster members. These data place constraints on the nature of the background, lensed galaxies and thus the Dark Matter distribution in the clusters themselves and provide a rich legacy of targets for follow-up with the VLT, ALMA and JWST. In particular, these observations identify the systems with the brightest lines that are vital for successful AO-assisted follow-up which will sub-divide light into many more spatial elements. This project focuses on the brightest lensed sources that constrain the gravitational mass of the clusters and also the properties of the lensed galaxy. Through the unprecedented statistics our MUSE survey provides, we will address a wide range of astrophysics questions with both the sample of several hundred lensed sources and the handful of most highly amplified systems that can be followed-up with other telescopes.