Prof. Matt Jarvis

Abstract:

The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) is a deep 120–168 MHz imaging survey that will eventually cover the entire northern sky. Each of the 3170 pointings will be observed for 8 h, which, at most declinations, is sufficient to produce ~5″ resolution images with a sensitivity of ~100 μJy/beam and accomplish the main scientific aims of the survey, which are to explore the formation and evolution of massive black holes, galaxies, clusters of galaxies and large-scale structure. Owing to the compact core and long baselines of LOFAR, the images provide excellent sensitivity to both highly extended and compact emission. For legacy value, the data are archived at high spectral and time resolution to facilitate subarcsecond imaging and spectral line studies. In this paper we provide an overview of the LoTSS. We outline the survey strategy, the observational status, the current calibration techniques, a preliminary data release, and the anticipated scientific impact. The preliminary images that we have released were created using a fully automated but direction-independent calibration strategy and are significantly more sensitive than those produced by any existing large-area low-frequency survey. In excess of 44 000 sources are detected in the images that have a resolution of 25″, typical noise levels of less than 0.5 mJy/beam, and cover an area of over 350 square degrees in the region of the HETDEX Spring Field (right ascension 10h45m00s to 15h30m00s and declination 45°00′00″ to 57°00′00″).

Abstract:

We present a catalogue of ∼3,000 submillimetre sources detected (≥3.5σ) at 850μm over ∼5 deg2 surveyed as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey (S2CLS). This is the largest survey of its kind at 850μm, increasing the sample size of 850-μm-selected submillimetre galaxies by an order of magnitude. The wide 850μm survey component of S2CLS covers the extragalactic fields: UKIDSS-UDS, COSMOS, Akari-NEP, Extended Groth Strip, Lockman Hole North, SSA22 and GOODS-North. The average 1σ depth of S2CLS is 1.2 mJy beam−1, approaching the SCUBA-2 850μm confusion limit, which we determine to be σc ≈ 0.8 mJy beam−1. We measure the 850μm number counts, reducing the Poisson errors on the differential counts to approximately 4% at S850 ≈ 3 mJy. With several independent fields, we investigate field-to-field variance, finding that the number counts on 0.5–1° scales are generally within 50% of the S2CLS mean for S850 > 3 mJy, with scatter consistent with the Poisson and estimated cosmic variance uncertainties, although there is a marginal (2σ) density enhancement in GOODS-North. The observed counts are in reasonable agreement with recent phenomenological and semi-analytic models, although determining the shape of the faint end slope (S850 < 3 mJy) remains a key test. The large solid angle of S2CLS allows us to measure the bright-end counts: at S850 > 10 mJy there are approximately ten sources per square degree, and we detect the distinctive up-turn in the number counts indicative of the detection of local sources of 850μm emission, and strongly lensed high-redshift galaxies. All calibrated maps and the catalogue are made publicly available.

Abstract:

We present a robust calibration of the 1.4 GHz radio continuum star formation rate (SFR) using a combination of the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey and the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm (FIRST) survey. We identify individually detected 1.4 GHz GAMA-FIRST sources and use a late-type, non-AGN, volume-limited sample from GAMA to produce stellar mass-selected samples. The latter are then combined to produce FIRST-stacked images. This extends the robust parametrisation of the 1.4 GHz-SFR relation to faint luminosities. For both the individually detected galaxies and our stacked samples, we compare 1.4 GHz luminosity to SFRs derived from GAMA to determine a new 1.4 GHz luminosity-to-SFR relation with well constrained slope and normalisation. For the first time, we produce the radio SFR-M⇤ relation over 2 decades in stellar mass, and find that our new calibration is robust, and produces a SFR-M⇤relation which is consistent with all other GAMA SFR methods. Finally, using our new 1.4 GHz luminosity-to-SFR calibration we make predictions for the number of star-forming GAMA sources which are likely to be detected in the upcoming ASKAP surveys, EMU and DINGO.

Abstract:

Observations using the 7 mm receiver system on the Australia Telescope Compact Array have revealed large reservoirs of molecular gas in two high-redshift radio galaxies: HATLAS J090426.9+015448 (zz = 2.37) and HATLAS J140930.4+003803 (zz = 2.04). Optically the targets are very faint, and spectroscopy classifies them as narrow-line radio galaxies. In addition to harbouring an active galactic nucleus the targets share many characteristics of sub-mm galaxies. Far-infrared data from Herschel-ATLAS suggest high levels of dust (>109 M⊙) and a correspondingly large amount of obscured star formation (∼1000 M⊙ / yr). The molecular gas is traced via the J = 1 → 0 transition of 12CO, its luminosity implying total H2 masses of (1.7 ± 0.3) × 1011 and (9.5 ± 2.4) × 1010 (αCO/0.8) M⊙ in HATLAS J090426.9+015448 and HATLAS J140930.4+003803 respectively. Both galaxies exhibit molecular line emission over a broad (∼1000 km/s) velocity range, and feature double-peaked profiles. We interpret this as evidence of either a large rotating disk or an on-going merger. Gas depletion timescales are ∼100 Myr. The 1.4 GHz radio luminosities of our targets place them close to the break in the luminosity function. As such they represent ‘typical’ zz > 2 radio sources, responsible for the bulk of the energy emitted at radio wavelengths from accretion-powered sources at high redshift, and yet they rank amongst the most massive systems in terms of molecular gas and dust content. We also detect 115 GHz rest-frame continuum emission, indicating a very steep high-radio-frequency spectrum, possibly classifying the targets as compact steep spectrum objects.

Abstract:

A complete sample of 96 faint ($S > 0.5$ mJy) radio galaxies is selected from the Tenth Cambridge (10C) survey at 15.7~GHz. Optical spectra are used to classify 17 of the sources as high-excitation or low-excitation radio galaxies (HERGs and LERGs respectively), for the remaining sources three other methods are used; these are optical compactness, X-ray observations and mid-infrared colour--colour diagrams. 32 sources are HERGs and 35 are LERGs while the remaining 29 sources could not be classified. We find that the 10C HERGs tend to have higher 15.7-GHz flux densities, flatter spectra, smaller linear sizes and be found at higher redshifts than the LERGs. This suggests that the 10C HERGs are more core dominated than the LERGs. Lower-frequency radio images, linear sizes and spectral indices are used to classify the sources according to their radio morphology; 18 are Fanaroff and Riley type I or II sources, a further 13 show some extended emission, and the remaining 65 sources are compact and are referred to as FR0 sources. The FR0 sources are sub-divided into compact, steep-spectrum (CSS) sources (13 sources) or GHz-peaked spectrum (GPS) sources (10 sources) with the remaining 42 in an unclassified class. FR0 sources are more dominant in the subset of sources with 15.7-GHz flux densities $<$1 mJy, consistent with the previous result that the fainter 10C sources have flatter radio spectra. The properties of the 10C sources are compared to the higher-flux density Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) survey. The 10C sources are found at similar redshifts to the AT20G sources but have lower luminosities. The nature of the high-frequency selected objects change as flux density decreases; at high flux densities the objects are primarily quasars, while at low flux densities radio galaxies dominate.