Speaker
Description
Due to high levels of stellar contamination and dust extinction, the sky behind the Magellanic Clouds is not as well-studied as less obscured areas. Therefore, knowledge of background galaxies (and hence galaxy clusters and large-scale structure) in this area has historically been limited, despite the area being covered by a wealth of multiwavelength surveys intended for stellar astrophysics. We have overcome these challenges in recent years by using high-resolution near-infrared and optical photometric surveys to create a three-dimensional map of large-scale structure behind the Small Magellanic Cloud up to z=1.76. Now we have used this map to create a catalogue of galaxy clusters and study their properties and evolution across cosmic time, including the variation of cluster overdensity, luminosity, colour and the anisotropy of star-formation quenching. This new catalogue and the scientific insights drawn from it help to ‘fill in the gap’ in galaxy cluster and large-scale structure observations, which it has never been more important to do given the increasing need for completeness when studying processes that occur on cosmological scales.
