A sample of 18 286 radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) is presented, constructed by combining the seventh data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with the NRAO (National Radio Astronomy ...Observatory) VLA (Very Large Array) Sky Survey (NVSS) and the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty centimetres (FIRST) survey. Using this sample, the differences between radio galaxies of 'high-excitation' ('quasar-mode'; hereafer HERG) and 'low-excitation' ('radio-mode'; LERG) are investigated. A primary difference between the two radio source classes is the distinct nature of the Eddington-scaled accretion rate on to their central black holes: HERGs typically have accretion rates between one per cent and 10 per cent of their Eddington rate, whereas LERGs predominately accrete at a rate below one per cent Eddington. This is consistent with models whereby the population dichotomy is caused by a switch between radiatively efficient and radiatively inefficient accretion modes at low accretion rates. Local radio luminosity functions are derived separately for the two populations, for the first time, showing that although LERGs dominate at low radio luminosity and HERGs begin to take over at L
1.4 GHz∼ 1026 W Hz−1, examples of both classes are found at all radio luminosities. Using the V/V
max test it is shown that the two populations show differential cosmic evolution at fixed radio luminosity: HERGs evolve strongly at all radio luminosities, while LERGs show weak or no evolution. This suggests that the luminosity dependence of the evolution previously seen in the radio luminosity function is driven, at least in part, by the changing relative contributions of these two populations with luminosity. The host galaxies of the radio sources are also distinct: HERGs are typically of lower stellar mass, with lower black hole masses, bluer colours, lower concentration indices and less pronounced 4000 Å breaks indicating younger stellar populations. Even if samples are matched in radio luminosity and stellar and black hole masses, significant differences still remain between the accretion rates, stellar populations and structural properties of the host galaxies of the two radio source classes. These results offer strong support to the developing picture of radio-loud AGN in which HERGs are fuelled at high rates through radiatively efficient standard accretion discs by cold gas, perhaps brought in through mergers and interactions, while LERGs are fuelled via radiatively inefficient flows at low accretion rates. In this picture, the gas supplying the LERGs is frequently associated with the hot X-ray haloes surrounding massive galaxies, groups and clusters, as part of a radio-AGN feedback loop.
We present VLT/SINFONI imaging spectroscopy of the rest-frame optical emission lines of warm ionized gas in 33 powerful radio galaxies at redshifts z ≳ 2, which are excellent sites to study the ...interplay of rapidly accreting active galactic nuclei and the interstellar medium of the host galaxy in the very late formation stages of massive galaxies. Our targets span two orders of magnitude in radio size (2−400 kpc) and kinetic jet energy (a few 1046– almost 1048 erg s-1). All sources have complex gas kinematics with broad line widths up to ~1300 km s-1. About half have bipolar velocity fields with offsets up to 1500 km s-1 and are consistent with global back-to-back outflows. The others have complex velocity distributions, often with multiple abrupt velocity jumps far from the nucleus of the galaxy, and are not associated with a major merger in any obvious way. We present several empirical constraints that show why gas kinematics and radio jets seem to be physically related in all galaxies of the sample. The kinetic energy in the gas from large scale bulk and local outflow or turbulent motion corresponds to a few 10-3 to 10-2 of the kinetic energy output of the radio jet. In galaxies with radio jet power ≳ 1047 erg s-1, the kinetic energy in global back-to-back outflows dominates the total energy budget of the gas, suggesting that bulk motion of outflowing gas encompasses the global interstellar medium. This might be facilitated by the strong gas turbulence, as suggested by recent analytical work. We compare our findings with recent hydrodynamic simulations, and discuss the potential consequences for the subsequent evolution of massive galaxies at high redshift. Compared with recent models of metal enrichment in high-z AGN hosts, we find that the gas-phase metallicities in our galaxies are lower than in most low-z AGN, but nonetheless solar or even super-solar, suggesting that the ISM we see in these galaxies is very similar to the gas from which massive low-redshift galaxies formed most of their stars. This further highlights that we are seeing these galaxies near the end of their active formation phase.
We present a study of the prevalence of optical and radio nuclear activity with respect to the environment and interactions in a sample of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) galaxies. The aim is to ...determine the independent effects of distinct aspects of source environment on the triggering of different types of nuclear activity. We defined a local density parameter and a tidal force estimator and used a cluster richness estimator from the literature to trace different aspects of environment and interaction. The possible correlations between the environmental parameters were removed using a principal component analysis. By far, the strongest trend found for the active galactic nuclei (AGN) fractions, of all AGN types, is with galaxy mass. We therefore applied a stratified statistical method that takes into account the effect of possible confounding factors like the galaxy mass. We found that (at fixed mass) the prevalence of optical AGN is a factor of 2-3 lower in the densest environments, but increases by a factor of ∼2 in the presence of strong one-on-one interactions. These effects are even more pronounced for star-forming nuclei. The importance of galaxy interactions decreases from star-forming nuclei to Seyferts to low-ionization nuclear emission-line regions to passive galaxies, in accordance with previous suggestions of an evolutionary time-sequence. The fraction of radio AGN increases very strongly (by nearly an order of magnitude) towards denser environments, and is also enhanced by galaxy interactions. Overall, the results agree with a scenario in which the mechanisms of accretion into the black hole are determined by the presence and nature of a supply of gas, which in turn is controlled by the local density of galaxies and their interactions. A plentiful cold gas supply is required to trigger star formation, optical AGN and radiatively efficient radio AGN. This is less common in the cold-gas-poor environments of groups and clusters, but is enhanced by one-on-one interactions which result in the flow of gas into nuclear regions; these two factors compete against each other. In the denser environments where cold gas is rare, cooling hot gas can supply the nucleus at a sufficient rate to fuel low-luminosity radiatively inefficient radio AGN. However, the increased prevalence of these AGN in interacting galaxies suggests that this is not the only mechanism by which radiatively inefficient AGN can be triggered.
Context. Quantifying the fraction of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the faint radio population and understanding their relation with star-forming activity are fundamental to studies of galaxy ...evolution. Very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations are able to identify AGN above relatively low redshifts (z> 0.1) since they provide milli-arcsecond resolution. Aims. We have created an AGN catalogue from 2865 known radio sources observed in the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) field, which has exceptional multi-wavelength coverage. With this catalogue we intend to study the faint radio sky with statistically relevant numbers and to analyse the AGN – host galaxy co-evolution, making use of the large amount of ancillary data available in the field. Methods. Wide-field VLBI observations were made of all known radio sources in the COSMOS field at 1.4 GHz to measure the AGN fraction, in particular in the faint radio population. We describe in detail the observations, data calibration, source detection and flux density measurements, parts of which we have developed for this survey. The combination of number of sources, sensitivity, and area covered with this project are unprecedented. Results. We have detected 468 radio sources, expected to be AGN, with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). This is, to date, the largest sample assembled of VLBI detected sources in the sub-mJy regime. The input sample was taken from previous observations with the Very Large Array (VLA). We present the catalogue with additional optical, infrared and X-ray information. Conclusions. We find a detection fraction of 20 ± 1%, considering only those sources from the input catalogue which were in principle detectable with the VLBA (2361). As a function of the VLA flux density, the detection fraction is higher for higher flux densities, since at high flux densities a source could be detected even if the VLBI core accounts for a small percentage of the total flux density. As a function of redshift, we see no evolution of the detection fraction over the redshift range 0.5 <z< 3. In addition, we find that faint radio sources typically have a greater fraction of their radio luminosity in a compact core – ~70% of the sub-mJy sources detected with the VLBA have more than half of their total radio luminosity in a VLBI-scale component, whereas this is true for only ~30% of the sources that are brighter than 10 mJy. This suggests that fainter radio sources differ intrinsically from brighter ones. Across our entire sample, we find the predominant morphological classification of the host galaxies of the VLBA detected sources to be early type (57%), although this varies with redshift and at z> 1.5 we find that spiral galaxies become the most prevalent (48%). The number of detections is high enough to study the faint radio population with statistically significant numbers. We demonstrate that wide-field VLBI observations, together with new calibration methods such as multi-source self-calibration and mosaicing, result in information which is difficult or impossible to obtain otherwise.
The properties of the host galaxies of a well-defined sample of 2215 radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) with redshifts 0.03 < z < 0.3, defined from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), are ...investigated. These are predominantly low radio-luminosity sources, with 1.4-GHz luminosities in the range 1023–1025 W Hz−1. The fraction of galaxies that host radio-loud AGN with L1.4 GHz > 1023W Hz−1 is a strong function of stellar mass, rising from nearly zero below a stellar mass of 1010M⊙ to more than 30 per cent at stellar masses of 5 × 1011M⊙. In contrast to the integrated Oiii luminosity density from emission-line AGN, which is mainly produced by black holes with masses below 108M⊙, the integrated radio luminosity density comes from the most massive black holes in the Universe. The integral radio luminosity function is derived in six ranges of stellar and black hole masses. Its shape is very similar in all of these ranges and can be well fitted by a broken power law. Its normalization varies strongly with mass, as M2.5* or M1.6BH; this scaling only begins to break down when the predicted radio-loud fraction exceeds 20–30 per cent. There is no correlation between radio and emission-line luminosities for the radio-loud AGN in the sample and the probability that a galaxy of given mass is radio loud is independent of whether it is optically classified as an AGN. The host galaxies of the radio-loud AGN have properties similar to those of ordinary galaxies of the same mass, with a tendency for radio-loud AGN to be found in larger galaxies and in richer environments. The host galaxies of radio-loud AGN with emission lines match those of their radio-quiet counterparts. All of these findings support the conclusion that the optical AGN and low radio-luminosity AGN phenomena are independent and are triggered by different physical mechanisms. Intriguingly, the dependence on black hole mass of the radio-loud AGN fraction mirrors that of the rate at which gas cools from the hot atmospheres of elliptical galaxies. It is speculated that gas cooling provides a natural explanation for the origin of the radio-loud AGN activity, and it is argued that AGN heating could plausibly balance the cooling of the gas over time.
Abstract
Radio emission is a key indicator of star formation activity in galaxies, but the radio luminosity–star formation relation has to date been studied almost exclusively at frequencies of ...1.4 GHz or above. At lower radio frequencies, the effects of thermal radio emission are greatly reduced, and so we would expect the radio emission observed to be completely dominated by synchrotron radiation from supernova-generated cosmic rays. As part of the LOFAR Surveys Key Science project, the Herschel-ATLAS NGP field has been surveyed with LOFAR at an effective frequency of 150 MHz. We select a sample from the MPA-JHU catalogue of Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxies in this area: the combination of Herschel, optical and mid-infrared data enable us to derive star formation rates (SFRs) for our sources using spectral energy distribution fitting, allowing a detailed study of the low-frequency radio luminosity–star formation relation in the nearby Universe. For those objects selected as star-forming galaxies (SFGs) using optical emission line diagnostics, we find a tight relationship between the 150 MHz radio luminosity (L150) and SFR. Interestingly, we find that a single power-law relationship between L150 and SFR is not a good description of all SFGs: a broken power-law model provides a better fit. This may indicate an additional mechanism for the generation of radio-emitting cosmic rays. Also, at given SFR, the radio luminosity depends on the stellar mass of the galaxy. Objects that were not classified as SFGs have higher 150-MHz radio luminosity than would be expected given their SFR, implying an important role for low-level active galactic nucleus activity.
We investigate the evolution of the H β + O iii and O ii luminosity functions from z ∼ 0.8 to ∼5 in four redshift slices per emission line using data from the High-z Emission Line Survey (HiZELS). ...This is the first time that the H β + O iii and O ii luminosity functions have been studied at these redshifts in a self-consistent analysis. This is also the largest sample of O ii and H β + O iii emitters (3475 and 3298 emitters, respectively) in this redshift range, with large comoving volumes ∼1 × 106 Mpc−3 in two independent volumes (COSMOS and UDS), greatly reducing the effects of cosmic variance. The emitters were selected by a combination of photometric redshift and colour–colour selections, as well as spectroscopic follow-up, including recent spectroscopic observations using DEIMOS and MOSFIRE on the Keck Telescopes and FMOS on Subaru. We find a strong increase in L
⋆ and a decrease in ϕ⋆ for both H β + O iii and O ii emitters. We derive the O ii star formation history of the Universe since z ∼ 5 and find that the cosmic star formation rate density (SFRD) rises from z ∼ 5 to ∼3 and then drops towards z ∼ 0. We also find that our star formation history is able to reproduce the evolution of the stellar mass density up to z ∼ 5 based only on a single tracer of star formation. When comparing the H β + O iii SFRDs to the O ii and H α SFRD measurements in the literature, we find that there is a remarkable agreement, suggesting that the H β + O iii sample is dominated by star-forming galaxies at high-z rather than AGNs.
We compare the kinetic energy and momentum injection rates from intense star formation, bolometric AGN radiation, and radio jets with the kinetic energy and momentum observed in the warm ionized gas ...in 24 powerful radio galaxies at z ~ 2. These galaxies are among our best candidates for being massive galaxies near the end of their active formation period, when intense star formation, quasar activity, and powerful radio jets all co-exist. All galaxies have VLT/SINFONI imaging spectroscopy of the rest-frame optical line emission, showing extended emission-line regions with large velocity offsets (up to 1500 km s-1) and line widths (typically 800–1000 km s-1) consistent with very turbulent, often outflowing gas. As part of the HeRGÉ sample, they also have FIR estimates of the star formation and quasar activity obtained with Herschel/PACS and SPIRE, which enables us to measure the relative energy and momentum release from each of the three main sources of feedback in massive, star-forming AGN host galaxies during their most rapid formation phase. We find that star formation falls short by factors 10−1000 of providing the energy and momentum necessary to power the observed gas kinematics. The obscured quasars in the nuclei of these galaxies provide enough energy and momentum in about half of the sample, however, only if both are transferred to the gas relatively efficiently. We compare with theoretical and observational constraints on the efficiency of the energy and momentum transfer from jet and AGN radiation, which favors the radio jets as main drivers of the gas kinematics.
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