Gravitational Lenses as cosmic telescopes

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.