- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/463/2997
- Title:
- Lockman Hole low-frequency radio sources
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/463/2997
- Date:
- 02 Nov 2021 11:21:03
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The Lockman Hole is a well-studied extragalactic field with extensive multi-band ancillary data covering a wide range in frequency, essential for characterizing the physical and evolutionary properties of the various source populations detected in deep radio fields (mainly star-forming galaxies and AGNs). In this paper, we present new 150-MHz observations carried out with the LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR), allowing us to explore a new spectral window for the faint radio source population. This 150-MHz image covers an area of 34.7 square degrees with a resolution of 18.6x14.7-arcsec and reaches an rms of 160{mu}Jy/beam at the centre of the field. As expected for a low-frequency selected sample, the vast majority of sources exhibit steep spectra, with a median spectral index of {alpha}_150_^1400^=-0.78+/-0.015. The median spectral index becomes slightly flatter (increasing from {alpha}_150_^1400^=-0.84 to {alpha}_150_^1400^=-0.75) with decreasing flux density down to S_150_ ~10mJy before flattening out and remaining constant below this flux level. For a bright subset of the 150-MHz selected sample, we can trace the spectral properties down to lower frequencies using 60-MHz LOFAR observations, finding tentative evidence for sources to become flatter in spectrum between 60 and 150MHz. Using the deep, multi-frequency data available in the Lockman Hole, we identify a sample of 100 ultra-steep-spectrum sources and 13 peaked-spectrum sources. We estimate that up to 21 per cent of these could have z>4 and are candidate high-z radio galaxies, but further follow-up observations are required to confirm the physical nature of these objects.
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- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/462/2934
- Title:
- Lockman Hole North 3GHz catalogue
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/462/2934
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- This is the second of two papers describing the observations and source catalogues derived from sensitive $3$-GHz images of the Lockman Hole North using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. We describe the reduction and cataloguing process, which yielded an image with 8-arcsec resolution and instrumental noise of {sigma}_n=1.01uJy/beam rms (before primary beam corrections) and a catalogue of 558 sources detected above 5{sigma}_n. We include details of how we estimate source spectral indices across the 2GHz VLA bandwidth, finding a median index of -0.76+/-0.04. Stacking of source spectra reveals a flattening of spectral index with decreasing flux density. We present a source count derived from the catalogue. We show a traditional count estimate compared with a completely independent estimate made via a P(D) confusion analysis, and find very good agreement. Cross-matches of the catalogue with X-ray, optical, infrared, radio, and redshift catalogues are also presented. The X-ray, optical and infrared data, as well as AGN selection criteria allow us to classify 10 per cent as radio-loud AGN, 28 percent as radio-quiet AGN, and 58 per cent as star-forming galaxies, with only 4 per cent unclassified.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/653/A155
- Title:
- Lockman Hole Polarised Sources at 1.4GHz
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/653/A155
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- In the context of structure formation and galaxy evolution, the contribution of magnetic fields is not well understood. Feedback processes originating from active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity and star formation can be actively influenced by magnetic fields, depending on their strength and morphology. One of the best tracers of magnetic fields is polarised radio emission. Tracing this emission over a broad redshift range therefore allows an investigation of these fields and their evolution. We aim to study the nature of the faint, polarised radio source population whose source composition and redshift dependence contain information about the strength, morphology, and evolution of magnetic fields over cosmic timescales. We use a 15-pointing radio continuum L-band mosaic of the Lockman Hole, observed in full polarisation, generated from archival data of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT). The data were analysed using the rotation measure synthesis technique. We achieved a noise of 7uJy/beam in polarised intensity, with a resolution of 15". Using infrared and optical images and source catalogues, we were able to cross-identify and determine redshifts for one-third of our detected polarised sources. Results. We detected 150 polarised sources, most of which are weakly polarised with a mean fractional polarisation of 5.4%. No source was found with a fractional polarisation higher than 21%. With a total area of 6.5deg^2^ and a detection threshold of 6.25{sigma}, we find 23 polarised sources per deg^2^. Based on our multi-wavelength analysis, we find that our sample consists of AGN only. We find a discrepancy between archival number counts and those present in our data, which we attribute to sample variance (i.e. large-scale structures). Considering the absolute radio luminosity, we find a general trend of increased probability of detecting weak sources at low redshift and strong sources at high redshift. We attribute this trend to a selection bias. Further, we find an anti-correlation between fractional polarisation and redshift for our strong-source sample at z>=0.6. A decrease in the fractional polarisation of strong sources with increasing redshift cannot be explained by a constant magnetic field and electron density over cosmic scales; however, the changing properties of cluster environments over cosmic time may play an important role. Disentangling these two effects requires deeper and wider polarisation observations as well as better models of the morphology and strength of cosmic magnetic fields.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/495/4071
- Title:
- Lockman Hole region 325MHz source catalogue
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/495/4071
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- One of the key science goals for the most sensitive telescopes, both current and upcoming, is the detection of the redshifted 21-cm signal from the Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization. The success of detection relies on accurate foreground modelling for their removal from data sets. This paper presents the characterization of astrophysical sources in the Lockman Hole region. Using 325-MHz data obtained from the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, a 6{deg}x6{deg} mosaiced map is produced with an rms reaching 50uJy per beam. A source catalogue containing 6186 sources is created, and the Euclidean normalized differential source counts have been derived from it, consistent with previous observations as well as simulations. A detailed comparison of the source catalogue is also made with previous findings - at both lower and higher frequencies. The angular power spectrum (APS) of the diffuse Galactic synchrotron emission is determined for three different Galactic latitudes using the tapered gridded estimator. The values of the APS lie between ~1 and ~100mK^2^. Fitting a power law of the form Al^-{beta}^ gives values of A and {beta} varying across the latitudes considered. This paper demonstrates, for the first time, the variation of the power-law index for diffuse emission at very high Galactic locations. It follows the same trend that is seen at locations near the Galactic plane, thus emphasizing the need for low-frequency observations for developing better models of the diffuse emission.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/551/A97
- Title:
- Lockman Hole/XMM VLBI observations
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/551/A97
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Active galactic nuclei (AGN) play a decisive role in galaxy evolution, particularly so when they launch powerful jets, which reshape their surroundings. However, identifying them is difficult, since radio observations typically have a resolution between 1arcsec and 10arcsec, which is equally sensitive to radio emission from star-forming activity and from AGN. Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations allow only the most compact non-thermal emission to be to be filtered from radio survey data. The observational and computational demands to do this in large surveys have, until recently, been too high to make this practical. Only the recent advent of wide-field observing techniques have enabled such observations, and we here present the results of a survey of 217 radio sources in the Lockman Hole/XMM field. We detected 65 out of the 217 radio sources and were able to construct, for the first time, the source counts of VLBI-detected AGN.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/793/82
- Title:
- LOFAR Bootes and 3C295 field sources
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/793/82
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) Low Band observations of the Bootes and 3C 295 fields. Our images made at 34, 46, and 62 MHz reach noise levels of 12, 8, and 5 mJy/beam, making them the deepest images ever obtained in this frequency range. In total, we detect between 300 and 400 sources in each of these images, covering an area of 17-52 deg^2^. From the observations, we derive Euclidean-normalized differential source counts. The 62 MHz source counts agree with previous GMRT 153 MHz and Very Large Array 74 MHz differential source counts, scaling with a spectral index of -0.7. We find that a spectral index scaling of -0.5 is required to match up the LOFAR 34 MHz source counts. This result is also in agreement with source counts from the 38 MHz 8C survey, indicating that the average spectral index of radio sources flattens toward lower frequencies. We also find evidence for spectral flattening using the individual flux measurements of sources between 34 and 1400 MHz and by calculating the spectral index averaged over the source population. To select ultra-steep spectrum ({alpha}<-1.1) radio sources that could be associated with massive high-redshift radio galaxies, we compute spectral indices between 62 MHz, 153 MHz, and 1.4 GHz for sources in the Bootes field. We cross-correlate these radio sources with optical and infrared catalogs and fit the spectral energy distribution to obtain photometric redshifts. We find that most of these ultra-steep spectrum sources are located in the 0.7<~z<~2.5 range.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/635/A76
- Title:
- LOFAR census of pulsars at low frequencies
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/635/A76
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- To date, only 69 pulsars have been identified with a detected pulsed radio emission below 100MHz. A LOFAR-core LBA census and a dedicated campaign with the Nancay LOFAR station in stand-alone mode were carried out in the years 2014-2017 in order to extend the known population in this frequency range. In this paper, we aim to extend the sample of known radio pulsars at low frequencies and to produce a catalogue in the frequency range of 25-80 MHz. This will allow future studies to probe the local Galactic pulsar population, in addition to helping explain their emission mechanism, better characterising the low-frequency turnover in their spectra, and obtaining new information about the interstellar medium through the study of dispersion, scattering, and scintillation. We observed 102 pulsars that are known to emit radio pulses below 200MHz and with declination above -30{deg}. We used the the Low Band Antennas (LBA) of the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) international station FR606 at the Nancay Radio Observatory in stand-alone mode, recording data between 25-80MHz. Out of our sample of 102 pulsars, we detected 64. We confirmed the existence of ten pulsars detected below 100 MHz by the LOFAR LBA census for the first time (Bilous et al., 2019, submitted) and we added two more pulsars that had never before been detected in this frequency range. We provided average pulse profiles, DM values, and mean flux densities (or upper limits in the case of non-detections). The comparison with previously published results allows us to identify a hitherto unknown spectral turnover for five pulsars, confirming the expectation that spectral turnovers are a widespread phenomenon.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/631/A49
- Title:
- LOFAR images of blazar S5 0836+710
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/631/A49
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The emission and proper motion of the terminal hotspots of active galactic nucleus (AGN) jets can be used as a powerful probe of the intergalactic medium. However, measurements of hotspot advance speeds in active galaxies are difficult, especially in the young universe, because of the low angular velocities and the low brightness of distant radio galaxies. Our goal is to study the termination of an AGN jet in the young universe and to deduce physical parameters of the jet and the intergalactic medium. We used the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) to image the long-wavelength radio emission of the high-redshift blazar S5 0836+710 on arcsecond scales between 120MHz and 160MHz. The LOFAR image shows a compact unresolved core and a resolved emission region about 1.5 arcsec to the southwest of the radio core. This structure is in general agreement with previous higher-frequency radio observations with the Multi-Element Radio-Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) and the Very Large Array (VLA). The southern component shows a moderately steep spectrum with a spectral index of about >~-1,and the spectral index of the core is flat to slightly inverted. In addition, we detect for the first time a resolved steep-spectrum halo with a spectral index of about -1 surrounding the core. The arcsecond-scale radio structure of S5 0836+710 can be understood as a Faranoff-Riley (FR) II radio galaxy observed at a small viewing angle. The southern component can be interpreted as the region of the approaching jet's terminal hotspot, and the halo like diffuse component near the core can be interpreted as the counter-hotspot region. From the differentialDoppler boosting of both features, we can derive the hotspot advance speed to (0.01-0.036)c. Ata constant advance speed, the derived age of the source would exceed the total lifetime of such a powerful FR II radio galaxy substantially. Thus, the hotspot advance speed must have been higher in the past, in agreement with a scenario in which the originally highly relativistic jet has lost collimation as a result of instability growth and has transformed into an only mildly relativistic flow. Our data suggest that the density of the intergalactic medium around this distant (z=2.22) AGN could be substantially higher than the values typically found in less distant FR II radio galaxies.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/658/A4
- Title:
- LOFAR imaging of Arp299 at 150MHz
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/658/A4
- Date:
- 22 Feb 2022
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the spatially resolved emission of Arp 299 revealed by 150 MHz international baseline Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) and 1.4, 5.0, and 8.4GHz Very Large Array (VLA) observations. Nowadays, LOFAR allows to compare its resolution with the VLA ones. These will allow us to obtain pixel-by-pixel spectral imdex maps and local radio SEDs. With this information we recover the nature of the ISM around the main structures (either clumpy or continuous), as well as magnetic fields. The 150MHz image also shows structures never seen before, pointing out that these radio-frequencies observations are a perfect tool to detect them.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/648/A104
- Title:
- LOFAR LBA Sky Survey. I.
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/648/A104
- Date:
- 22 Feb 2022
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- LOFAR is the only radio telescope that is presently capable of high-sensitivity, high-resolution (i.e. <1mJy/b and <15") observations at ultra-low frequencies (<100MHz). To utilise these capabilities, the LOFAR Surveys Key Science Project is undertaking a large survey to cover the entire northern sky with Low Band Antenna (LBA) observations. The LOFAR LBA Sky Survey (LoLSS) aims to cover the entire northern sky with 3170 pointings in the frequency range 42-66MHz, at a resolution of 15-arcsec and at a sensitivity of 1mJy/beam (1{sigma}. Here we outline the survey strategy, the observational status, the current calibration techniques, and briefly describe several scientific motivations. We also describe the preliminary public data release. The preliminary images were produced using a fully automated pipeline that aims to correct all direction-independent effects in the data. Whilst the direction-dependent effects, such as those from the ionosphere, are not yet corrected, the images presented in this work are still 10 times more sensitive than previous surveys available at these low frequencies. The preliminary data release covers 740deg^2^ around the HETDEX spring field region at a resolution of 47" with a median noise level of 5mJy/beam. The images and the catalogue with 25247 sources are publicly released. We demonstrate that the system is capable of reaching an rms noise of 1mJy/beam and the resolution of 15" once direction-dependent effects are corrected for. LoLSS will provide the ultra-low-frequency information for hundreds of thousands of radio sources, providing critical spectral information and producing a unique dataset that can be used for a wide range of science topics such as: the search for high redshift galaxies and quasars, the study of the magnetosphere of exoplanets, and the detection of the oldest populations of cosmic-rays in galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and from AGN activity.