e-MERLIN / VLBI National Radio Astronomy Facility

e-MERLIN science Legacy programme

The e-MERLIN Legacy programme

SuperCLASS: the Super-CLuster Assited Shear Survey
- a weak lensing deep field using e-MERLIN

Principle Investigators:
Richard Battye (JBCA, Manchester)

Time Allocation: 832 hours

Co-Investigators include:-
Rob Beswick (JBCA, Manchester), Sarah Bridle (JBCA, Manchester), Michael Brown (JBCA, Manchster), Ian Browne (JBCA, Manchester), Simon Garrington (JBCA, Manchester), Ian Harrison (JBCA, Manchester), Neal Jackson (JBCA, Manchester), Scott Kay (JBCA, Manchester), Paddy Leahy (JBCA, Manchester), Tom Muxlow (JBCA, Manchester), Anita Richards (JBCA, Manchester), Anna Scaife (JBCA, Manchester), Ben Tunbridge (JBCA, Manchester), Peter Wilkinson (JBCA, Manchester), Lee Whittaker (JBCA, Manchester), Filipe Abdalla (UCL), David Bacon (Portsmouth), Mark Birkenshaw (Bristol), Caitlin Casey (UT Austin), Stefano Camera (UNITO, Turin), Constantinos Demetroullas (The Cyprus Institute), Meghan Gray (Nottingham), Chris Hales (Newcastle), Bob Nichol (Portsmouth), Sinclaire Manning (UT Austin), Steve Myers (NRAO, Socorro), Steve Rawlings (Oxford), Chris Riseley (CSIRO), Ian Smail (Durham)

Abstract

We propose a deep wide-area survey designed to detect the effects of weak lensing in a super-cluster region covering 1.75 sq. deg where there are 5 known clusters. Using a sophisticated mosaicing strategy we expect to achieve an r.m.s of 4 µJy in order to reach a source density ~1 sq. arcmin. Using standard, and new techniques involving polarization, these data will allow us to probe the dark matter distribution in the region and, by defining a grid of rotation measures, the magnetic field structure. We will propose a program of multi-wavelength observations in order to probe the star-formation and AGN activity in the ~ 104 sources we expect to detect which will complement the narrower, but deeper e-MERGE survey. The program will involve the development of the polarization, mosaicing and phase referencing capabilities of e-MERLIN and the results will yield information which will guide the design of surveys with the SKA.


Full proposals (pdf)