Description
Infrared 3.6-8{mu}m images of the Extended Groth Strip yield plausible counterpart identifications for all but one of 510 radio sources in the AEGIS20 S(1.4GHz)>50{mu}Jy sample. This is the first such deep sample that has been effectively 100% identified. Achieving the same identification rate at R band would require observations reaching R_AB_>27. Spectroscopic redshifts are available for 46% of the sample and photometric redshifts for an additional 47%. Almost all of the sources with 3.6{mu}m AB magnitudes brighter than 19 have spectroscopic redshifts z<1.1, while fainter objects predominantly have photometric redshifts with 1<~z<~3. Unlike more powerful radio sources that are hosted by galaxies having large stellar masses within a relatively narrow range, the AEGIS20 counterparts have stellar masses spanning more than a factor of 10 at z~1. The sources are roughly 10%-15% starbursts at z<~0.5 and 20%-25% active galactic nuclei mostly at z>1 with the remainder of uncertain nature.
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