Gravitational Lenses as cosmic telescopes

我们小组在赫歇尔空间天文台进行的赫歇尔-ATLAS调查的引力透镜要素中发挥着关键作用。H-ATLAS正在迅速增加已知强透镜系统的数量，不断有新的探测到比现有透镜样本达到的红移高得多的红移。这使得天文学家能够更深入地探索年轻的宇宙，当时星系演化还处于早期阶段。这些新的透镜系统目前正在由智利开创性的ALMA望远镜进行后续研究，该望远镜提供了令人难以置信的高分辨率和灵敏度。这一点，再加上透镜本身给出了背景源星系的放大图像，使得能够以其他方式不可能获得的精度水平分析高红移星系。正在提供的项目是对ALMA观测进行透镜模拟，以了解进行透镜作用的前景星系和被透镜的背景星系。该项目包括开发透镜建模技术的可能性。

Our group plays a key role in the gravitational lensing element of the Herschel-ATLAS survey carried out by the Herschel Space Observatory. H-ATLAS is rapidly increasing the number of known strong lens systems with a continual stream of new detections at significantly higher redshifts than existing lens samples reach. This allows astronomers to probe deeper into the young Universe when galaxy evolution was in its early stages. These new lens systems are presently being followed up by the ground-breaking ALMA telescope in Chile which offers incredibly high resolution and sensitivity. This, in combination with the fact that the lenses themselves give a magnified image of the background source galaxy enables analysis of high redshift galaxies at a level of precision that is impossible to obtain otherwise. The project being offered is to carry out lens modelling of the ALMA observations to learn about both the foreground galaxy doing the lensing and the background galaxy being lensed. The project includes the possibility of developing lens modelling techniques.