Abstract
The nearby elliptical galaxy IC 4296 has produced a large (510 kpc) low-luminosity radio source with typical FR
i
core/jet/lobe morphology. The unprecedented combination of brightness ...sensitivity, dynamic range, and angular resolution of a new 1.28 GHz MeerKAT continuum image reveals striking new morphological features, which we call threads, ribbons, and rings. The threads are faint narrow emission features originating where helical Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities disrupt the main radio jets. The ribbons are smooth regions between the jets and the lobes, and they appear to be relics of jets powered by earlier activity that have since come into pressure equilibrium. Vortex rings in the outer portions of the lobes and their backflows indicate that the straight outer jets and ribbons are inclined by
i
=
60
°
±
5
°
from the line of sight, in agreement with photometric, geometric, and gas-dynamical estimates of inclination angles near the nucleus.
It has been speculated that low-luminosity radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) have the potential to serve as an important source of AGN feedback, and may be responsible for suppressing star ...formation activity in massive elliptical galaxies at late times. As such the cosmic evolution of these sources is vitally important to understand the significance of such AGN feedback processes and their influence on the global star formation history of the Universe.
In this paper, we present a new investigation of the evolution of faint radio sources out to z ∼ 2.5. We combine a 1 square degree Very Large Array radio survey, complete to a depth of 100 μJy, with accurate 10 band photometric redshifts from the following surveys: Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy Deep Extragalactic Observations and Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey. The results indicate that the radio population experiences mild positive evolution out to z ∼ 1.2 increasing their space density by a factor of ∼3, consistent with results of several previous studies. Beyond z = 1.2, there is evidence of a slowing down of this evolution. Star-forming galaxies drive the more rapid evolution at low redshifts, z < 1.2, while more slowly evolving AGN populations dominate at higher redshifts resulting in a decline in the evolution of the radio luminosity function at z > 1.2. The evolution is best fitted by pure luminosity evolution with star-forming galaxies evolving as (1 + z)2.47 ± 0.12 and AGN as (1 + z)1.18 ± 0.21.
Quantifying how the baryonic matter traces the underlying dark matter distribution is key to both understanding galaxy formation and our ability to constrain the cosmological model. Using the ...cross-correlation function of radio and near-infrared galaxies, we present a large-scale clustering analysis of radio galaxies to z ... 2.2. We measure the angular auto-correlation function of K...<23.5 galaxies in the VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO-XMM3) field with photometric redshifts out to z = 4 using VIDEO and CFHTLS (Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey) photometry in the near-infrared and optical. We then use the cross-correlation function of these sources with 766 radio sources at S...>90...Jy to infer linear bias of radio galaxies in four redshift bins. We find that the bias evolves from b = 0.57 ± 0.06 at z ... 0.3 to 8.55 ± 3.11 at z ... 2.2. Furthermore, we separate the radio sources into subsamples to determine how the bias is dependent on the radio luminosity, and find a bias which is significantly higher than predicted by the simulations of Wilman et al., and consistent with the lower luminosity but more abundant FR-I population having a similar bias to the highly luminous but rare FR-IIs. Our results are suggestive of a higher mass, particularly for FR-I sources than assumed in simulations, especially towards higher redshift. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
Measurement of the evolution of both active galactic nuclei (AGN) and star-formation in galaxies underpins our understanding of galaxy evolution over cosmic time. Radio continuum observations can ...provide key information on these two processes, in particular via the mechanical feedback produced by radio jets in AGN, and via an unbiased dust-independent measurement of star formation rates. In this paper, we determine radio luminosity functions at 325 MHz for a sample of AGN and star-forming galaxies by matching a 138 deg2 radio survey conducted with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, with optical imaging and redshifts from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey. We find that the radio luminosity function at 325 MHz for star-forming galaxies closely follows that measured at 1.4 GHz. By fitting the AGN radio luminosity function out to z = 0.5 as a double power law, and parametrizing the evolution as Φ ∝ (1 + z)
k
, we find evolution parameters of k = 0.92 ± 0.95 assuming pure density evolution and k = 2.13 ± 1.96 assuming pure luminosity evolution. We find that the Low Excitation Radio Galaxies are the dominant population in space density at lower luminosities. Comparing our 325 MHz observations with radio continuum imaging at 1.4 GHz, we determine separate radio luminosity functions for steep- and flat-spectrum AGN, and show that the beamed population of flat-spectrum sources in our sample can be shifted in number density and luminosity to coincide with the unbeamed population of steep-spectrum sources, as is expected in the orientation-based unification of AGN.
In this paper, we describe the first data release of the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO) survey. VIDEO is a ∼12 deg2 survey in the ...near-infrared Z, Y, J, H and K
s bands, specifically designed to enable the evolution of galaxies and large structures to be traced as a function of both epoch and environment from the present day out to z = 4, and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and the most massive galaxies up to and into the epoch of reionization. With its depth and area, VIDEO will be able to fully explore the period in the Universe where AGN and starburst activity were at their peak and the first galaxy clusters were beginning to virialize. VIDEO therefore offers a unique data set with which to investigate the interplay between AGN, starbursts and environment, and the role of feedback at a time when it was potentially most crucial.
We provide data over the VIDEO-XMM3 tile, which also covers the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey Deep-1 field (CFHTLS-D1). The released VIDEO data reach a 5σ AB-magnitude depth of Z = 25.7, Y = 24.5, J = 24.4, H = 24.1 and K
s = 23.8 in 2 arcsec diameter apertures (the full depth of Y = 24.6 will be reached within the full integration time in future releases). The data are compared to previous surveys over this field and we find good astrometric agreement with the Two Micron All Sky Survey, and source counts in agreement with the recently released UltraVISTA survey data. The addition of the VIDEO data to the CFHTLS-D1 optical data increases the accuracy of photometric redshifts and significantly reduces the fraction of catastrophic outliers over the redshift range 0 < z < 1 from 5.8 to 3.1 per cent in the absence of an i-band luminosity prior. However, we expect that the main improvement in photometric redshifts will come in the redshift range 1 < z < 4 due to the sensitivity to the Balmer and 4000 Å breaks provided by the near-infrared VISTA filters. All images and catalogues presented in this paper are publicly available through ESO's phase 3 archive and the VISTA Science Archive.
Context. Ultra steep spectrum (USS) radio sources are one of the efficient tracers of powerful high-z radio galaxies (HzRGs). In contrast to searches for powerful HzRGs from radio surveys of moderate ...depths, fainter USS samples derived from deeper radio surveys can be useful in finding HzRGs at even higher redshifts and in unveiling a population of obscured weaker radio-loud AGN at moderate redshifts. Aims. Using our 325 MHz GMRT observations (5σ ~ 800 μJy) and 1.4 GHz VLA observations (5σ ~ 80−100 μJy) available in two subfields (VLA-VIMOS VLT Deep Survey (VLA-VVDS) and Subaru X-ray Deep Field (SXDF)) of the XMM-LSS field, we derive a large sample of 160 faint USS radio sources and characterize their nature. Methods. The optical and IR counterparts of our USS sample sources are searched using existing deep surveys, at respective wavelengths. We attempt to unveil the nature of our faint USS sources using diagnostic techniques based on mid-IR colors, flux ratios of radio to mid-IR, and radio luminosities. Results. Redshift estimates are available for 86/116 (~74%) USS sources in the VLA-VVDS field and for 39/44 (~87%) USS sources in the SXDF fields with median values (zmedian) ~1.18 and ~1.57, respectively, which are higher than estimates for non-USS radio sources (zmedian non−USS ~ 0.99 and ~0.96), in the two subfields. The MIR color–color diagnostic and radio luminosities are consistent with most of our USS sample sources at higher redshifts (z> 0.5) being AGN. The flux ratio of radio to mid-IR (S1.4 GHz/S3.6 μm) versus redshift diagnostic plot suggests that more than half of our USS sample sources distributed over z ~ 0.5 to 3.8 are likely to be hosted in obscured environments. A significant fraction (~26% in the VLA-VVDS and ~13% in the SXDF) of our USS sources without redshift estimates mostly remain unidentified in the existing optical, IR surveys, and exhibit high radio to mid-IR flux ratio limits similar to HzRGs, and so, can be considered as potential HzRG candidates. Conclusions. Our study shows that the criterion of ultra steep spectral index remains a reasonably efficient method to select high-z sources even at sub-mJy flux densities. In addition to powerful HzRG candidates, our faint USS sample also contains populations of weaker radio-loud AGNs potentially hosted in obscured environments.
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