Are the hosts of VLBI selected radio-AGN different to those of radio-loud AGN?

Abstract

Recent studies have found that radio-AGN selected by radio-loudness show little difference in terms of their host galaxy properties when compared to non-AGN galaxies of similar stellar mass and redshift. Using new 1.4~GHz VLBI observations of the COSMOS field we find that approximately 49$\pm 8$\% of high-mass (M $>$ 10${}^{10.5}$ M${}_{\odot }$), high luminosity (L${}_{1.4}$ $>$ 10${}^{24}$ W~Hz${}^{-1}$) radio-AGN possess a VLBI detected counterpart. These objects show no discernible bias towards specific stellar masses, redshifts or host properties other than what is shown by the radio-AGN population in general. Radio-AGN that are detected in VLBI observations are not special, but form a representative sample of the radio-loud AGN population.

6 pages, 4 figures, letter