Using Gravitational Lensing to Explore the End of the Dark Ages
Monday 1 March, 2:30 pm, Curia II
Richard Ellis (Caltech)
rse AT caltech.astro.edu

In 1937 Fritz Zwicky predicted cosmic lenses would aid in probing
distant parts of the Universe. I will review our attempts to
search the so-called "critical lines" of massive well-constrained
clusters to locate star-forming galaxies at early times. The objects
we uncover are far less massive, and presumably more representative,
than those discovered in conventional searches. This may make them
valuable probes of the final states of reionization. I will discuss
the prospects for extending our work to redshifts beyond z~7 prior
the launch of JWST and commissioning of the Thirty Meter Telescope.