R. B. Partridge

Faint Radio Sources and Star Formation History

The centimeter-wave luminosity of local radio galaxies correlates well with their star formation rate. We extend this correlation to surveys of high-redshift radio sources to estimate the global star formation history. The star formation rate found from radio observations needs no correction for dust obscuration, unlike the values calculated from optical and ultraviolet data. Three deep radio surveys have provided catalogs of sources with nearly complete optical identifications and nearly 60% complete spectroscopic redshifts: the Hubble Deep Field and Flanking Fields at 12h+62°, the SSA13 field at 13h+42°, and the V15 field at 14h+52°. We use the redshift distribution of these radio sources to constrain the evolution of their luminosity function. The epoch-dependent luminosity function is then used to estimate the evolving global star formation density. At redshifts less than 1, our calculated star formation rates are significantly larger than even the dust-corrected optically selected star formation rates; however, we confirm the rapid rise from z = 0 to z = 1 seen in those surveys.

Microjansky source counts and spectral indices at 8.44 GHz

Deep images were made with 10 arcsec resolution at 8.44 GHz with microjansky sensitivity of two regions previously imaged at several lower frequencies. The differential microjansky source count fits a power-law distribution with slope 2.3 +/- 0.2. This slope is roughly constant between 1.41 and 8.44 GHz and between S(v) = about 4 and X(v) = 1000 microJy. Unless the majority of radio sources at microJy levels are local, their average luminosity and/or space density probably has evolved with cosmic epoch in order to sustain the steep and nearly Euclidean value of the slope over such a large range in flux density. The 8.44 GHz counts probably converge at less than the 1 microjansky level if the evolutionary properties of these weak sources are similar to those of luminous gE radio galaxies and quasars. The median angular size of sources detected at 8.44 GHz at microjansky levels is 2.6 +/- 1.4 arcsec, and 40 percent of the source are larger than 5 arcsec.

High-resolution studies of radio sources in the Hubble Deep and Flanking Fields

18 days of MERLIN data and 42 h of A-array VLA data at 1.4 GHz have been combined to image a 10-arcmin field centred on the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). This area also includes the Hubble Flanking Fields (HFF). A complete sample of 92 radio sources with S 1.4 > 40 μJy was detected using the VLA data alone and then imaged with the MERLIN+VLA combination. The combined images offer (i) higher angular resolution (synthesized beams of diameter 0.2-0.5 arcsec), (ii) improved astrometric accuracy, and (iii) improved sensitivity compared with VLA-only data. The images are amongst the most sensitive yet made at 1.4GHz, with rms noise levels of 3.3 μJy beam -1 in the 0.2-arcsec images. Virtually all the sources are resolved, with angular sizes in the range 0.2 to 3 arcsec. The central 3-arcmin square was imaged separately to search for sources down to 27 μJy. No additional sources were detected, indicating that sources fainter than 40 μJy are heavily resolved with MERLIN and must have typical angular sizes > 0.5 arcsec. Radio sources associated with compact galaxies have been used to align the HDF, the HFF and a larger CFHT optical field to the radio-based International Celestial Reference Frame. The HST optical fields have been registered to 70 per cent of the sources are starburst-type systems associated with major disc galaxies in the redshift range 0.3-1.3. Chandra detections are associated with 55 of the 92 radio sources, but their X-ray flux densities do not appear to be correlated with the radio flux densities or morphologies. The most recent submillimetre results on the HDF and HFF do not provide any unambiguous identifications with these latest radio data, except for HDF8550.1, but suggest at least three strong candidates.

The microjansky sky at 8.4 GHz

We present the results from two deep radio integrations at 8.4 GHz using the Very Large Array. One of the fields, at 13h, +43° (SA 13 field), has an rms noise level of 1.49 μJy and is the deepest radio image yet made. Thirty-four sources in a complete sample were detected above 7.5 μJy, and 25 are optically identified to a limit of I = 25.8, using our deep Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based images. The radio sources are usually located within 05 (typically 5 kpc) of a galaxy nucleus and generally have a diameter less than 25. We have also analyzed a complete flux density–limited sample at 8.4 GHz of 89 sources from five deep radio surveys, including the Hubble deep and flanking fields, as well as the two new fields. Half of all the optical counterparts are with galaxies brighter than I = 23 mag, but 20% are fainter than I = 25.5 mag. There may be a small tendency for the microjansky radio sources to prefer multigalaxy systems. The distribution of the radio spectral index between 1.4 and 8.4 GHz peaks at α ≈ -0.75 (S ~ ν+α), with a median value of -0.6. The average spectral index becomes steeper (lower values) for sources below 35 μJy and for sources identified with optical counterparts fainter than I = 25.5 mag. This correlation suggests that there is an increasing contribution from starburst galaxies compared to AGNs at lower radio flux densities and fainter optical counterparts. The differential radio count between 7.5 and 1000 μJy has a slope of -2.11 ± 0.13 and a surface density of 0.64 sources (arcmin)-2, with a flux density greater than 7.5 μJy.

Optically Faint Microjansky Radio Sources

We report on the identifications of radio sources from our survey of the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) and the Small Selected Area 13 fields, both of which comprise the deepest radio surveys to date at 1.4 and 8.5 GHz, respectively. About 80% of the microjansky radio sources are associated with moderate-redshift starburst galaxies or active galactic nuclei within the I-magnitude range of 17-24 with a median of I=22 mag. Thirty-one (20%) of the radio sources are (1) fainter than I>25 mag, with two objects in the HDF IAB>28.5, (2) often identified with very red objects I-K>4, and (3) not significantly different in radio properties than the brighter objects. We suggest that most of these objects are associated with heavily obscured starburst galaxies with redshifts between 1 and 3. However, other mechanisms are discussed and cannot be ruled out with the present observations.

Dust and star formation properties of a complete sample of local galaxies drawn from the Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue

We combine Planck High Frequency Instrument data at 857, 545, 353 and 217 GHz with data from Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), Spitzer, IRAS and Herschel to investigate the properties of a well-defined, flux-limited sample of local star-forming galaxies. A 545 GHz flux density limit was chosen so that the sample is 80 per cent complete at this frequency, and the resulting sample contains a total of 234 local, star-forming galaxies. We investigate the dust emission and star formation properties of the sample via various models and calculate the local dust mass function. Although single-component-modified blackbodies fit the dust emission longward of 80 μm very well, with a median β = 1.83, the known degeneracy between dust temperature and β also means that the spectral energy distributions are very well described by a dust component with dust emissivity index fixed at β = 2 and temperature in the range 10–25 K. Although a second, warmer dust component is required to fit shorter wavelength data, and contributes approximately a third of the total infrared emission, its mass is negligible. No evidence is found for a very cold (6–10 K) dust component. The temperature of the cold dust component is strongly influenced by the ratio of the star formation rate to the total dust mass. This implies, contrary to what is often assumed, that a significant fraction of even the emission from ∼20 K dust is powered by ongoing star formation, whether or not the dust itself is associated with star-forming clouds or ‘cirrus’. There is statistical evidence of a free–free contribution to the 217 GHz flux densities of ≲20 per cent. We find a median dust-to-stellar mass ratio of 0.0046; and that this ratio is anticorrelated with galaxy mass. There is good correlation between dust mass and atomic gas mass (median Md/MHI=0.022), suggesting that galaxies that have more dust (higher values of Md/M*) have more interstellar medium in general. Our derived dust mass function implies a mean dust mass density of the local Universe (for dust within galaxies), of 7.0 ± 1.4 × 105 M⊙ Mpc−3, significantly greater than that found in the most recent estimate using Herschel data.

NICMOS Imaging of the Dusty Microjansky Radio Source VLA J123642+621331 at z = 4.424*

We present the discovery of a radio galaxy at a likely redshift of z=4.424 in one of the flanking fields of the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). Radio observations with the Very Large Array and MERLIN centered on the HDF yielded a complete sample of microjansky radio sources, of which about 20% have no optical counterpart to I</=25 mag. In this Letter, we address the possible nature of one of these sources through deep Hubble Space Telescope near-infrared camera and multiobject spectrometer (NICMOS) images in the F110W (J110) and F160W (H160) filters. VLA J123642+621331 has a single emission line at 6595 Å, which we identify with Lyalpha at z=4.424. We argue that this faint (H160=23.9 mag), compact (re approximately 0&farcs;2), red (I814-K=2.0) object is most likely a dusty, star-forming galaxy with an embedded active nucleus.

Low-Frequency Measurements of the Cosmic Background Radiation Spectrum

The long-wavelength spectrum of the cosmic background radiation has been measured at five wavelengths (0.33, 0.9, 3.0, 6.3, and 12.0 cm). These measurements represent a continuation of the work reported by Smoot et al. (1983). The combine results have a weighted average of 2.73 {+-} 0.05 K and are consistent with past measurements. They limit the possible Compton distortion of the Cosmic Background Radiation spectrum to less than 8%.

Radio Wavelength Constraints on the Sources of the Far-Infrared Background

The cosmic far-infrared background detected recently by the COBE-DIRBE team is presumably due, in large part, to the far-infrared (FIR) emission from all galaxies. We take the well-established correlation between FIR and radio luminosity for individual galaxies and apply it to the FIR background. We find that these sources make up about half of the extragalactic radio background, the other half being due to active galactic nuclei (AGNs). This is in agreement with other radio observations, which leads us to conclude that the FIR-radio correlation holds well for the very faint sources making up the FIR background and that the FIR background is indeed due to star formation activity (not AGNs or other possible sources). If these star-forming galaxies have a radio spectral index between 0.4 and 0.8 and make up 40%-60% of the extragalactic radio background, we find that they have redshifts between roughly 1 and 2, which is in agreement with recent estimates by Madau et al. of the redshift of peak star formation activity. We compare the observed extragalactic radio background to the integral over the log

A polarization survey of bright extragalactic AT20G sources

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