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Description
The work in this paper aims at determining the evolution and possible co-evolution of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and their cores via their radio luminosity functions (i.e., total and core RLFs, respectively). Using a large combined sample of 1063 radio-loud AGNs selected at low radio frequency, we investigate the RLF (radio luminosity function) at 408MHz of steep-spectrum radio sources. Our results support a luminosity-dependent evolution. Using core flux density data of the complete sample 3CRR (Laing et al., 1983, Cat. J/MNRAS/204/151; see also Cat. VIII/1), we investigate the core RLF at 5.0GHz. Based on the combined sample with incomplete core flux data, we also estimate the core RLF using a modified factor of completeness. Both results are consistent and show that the comoving number density of radio cores displays a persistent decline with redshift, implying a negative density evolution. We find that the core RLF is obviously different from the total RLF at the 408 MHz band which is mainly contributed by extended lobes, implying that the cores and extended lobes could not be co-evolving at radio emission.
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