Cosmic evolution of low-excitation radio galaxies in the LOFAR Two-meter Sky Survey Deep Fields

Abstract

Feedback from low-excitation radio galaxies (LERGs) plays a key role in the lifecycle of massive galaxies in the local Universe; their evolution, and the impact of these active galactic nuclei on early galaxy evolution, however, remain poorly understood. We use a sample of 10481 LERGs from the first data release of the LOFAR Two-meter Sky Survey Deep Fields, covering $\sim$ 25 deg${}^2$, to present the first measurement of the evolution of the radio luminosity function (LF) of LERGs out to $z\sim 2.5$; this shows relatively mild evolution. We split the LERGs into those hosted by quiescent and star-forming galaxies, finding a new dominant population of LERGs hosted by star-forming galaxies at high redshifts. The incidence of LERGs in quiescent galaxies shows a steep dependence on stellar-mass out to $z\sim 1.5$, consistent with local Universe measurements of accretion occurring from cooling of hot gas haloes. The quiescent-LERGs dominate the LFs at $z<1$, showing a strong decline in space density with redshift, tracing that of the available host galaxies, while there is an increase in the characteristic luminosity. The star-forming LERG LF increases with redshift, such that this population dominates the space densities at most radio-luminosities by $z\sim 1$. The incidence of LERGs in star-forming galaxies shows a much weaker stellar-mass dependence, and increases with redshift, suggesting a different fuelling mechanism compared to their quiescent counterparts, potentially associated with the cold gas supply present in the star-forming galaxies.

26 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. LF data available at: https://github.com/rohitk-10/AGN_LF_Kondapally22 . Author list error corrected in updated version

References in corpus (46)

• The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS)
• X-ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries
• A Highly Consistent Framework for the Evolution of the Star-Forming "Main Sequence" from z~0-6
• Heating Hot Atmospheres with Active Galactic Nuclei
• A simple model to interpret the ultraviolet, optical and infrared emission from galaxies
• The Co-Evolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Insights from Surveys of the Contemporary Universe
• Simba: Cosmological Simulations with Black Hole Growth and Feedback
• The Herschel view of the dominant mode of galaxy growth from z=4 to the present day
• PRIMUS: Constraints on Star Formation Quenching and Galaxy Merging, and the Evolution of the Stellar Mass Function From z=0-1
• The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey -- V. Second data release
• Hot and cold gas accretion and feedback in radio-loud active galaxies
• Radio sources in the 6dFGS: Local luminosity functions at 1.4 GHz for star-forming galaxies and radio-loud AGN
• AGN-controlled cooling in elliptical galaxies
• The mass evolution of the first galaxies: stellar mass functions and star formation rates at $4<z<7$ in the CANDELS GOODS-South field
• X-CIGALE: fitting AGN/galaxy SEDs from X-ray to infrared
• The LOFAR Two Meter Sky Survey: Deep Fields, I -- Direction-dependent calibration and imaging
• Raining on black holes and massive galaxies: the top-down multiphase condensation model
• The Spitzer Deep, Wide-Field Survey
• The faint radio sky: radio astronomy becomes mainstream
• Observational constraints on the merger history of galaxies since $z\approx 6$: Probabilistic galaxy pair counts in the CANDELS fields
• LOFAR/H-ATLAS: The low-frequency radio luminosity - star-formation rate relation
• The evolution of star formation histories of quiescent galaxies
• The VLA-COSMOS 3~GHz Large Project: Cosmic evolution of radio AGN and implications for radio-mode feedback since z~5
• Chaotic cold accretion on to black holes in rotating atmospheres
• The cosmic evolution of radio-AGN feedback to z=1
• The LOFAR Two Metre Sky Survey: Deep Fields Data Release 1 -- III. Host-galaxy identifications and value added catalogues
• The evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function over the last twelve billion years from a combination of ground-based and HST surveys
• The Hard X-Ray Luminosity Function of High-Redshift ($3<z\lesssim 5$) Active Galactic Nuclei
• The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey Deep fields: The star formation rate - radio luminosity relation at low frequencies
• The Lockman Hole project: LOFAR observations and spectral index properties of low-frequency radio sources
• HELP: The Herschel Extragalactic Legacy Project
• The triggering probability of radio-loud AGN: A comparison of high and low excitation radio galaxies in hosts of different colors
• Photometric redshifts for the next generation of deep radio continuum surveys - I: Template fitting
• Chasing passive galaxies in the early Universe: a critical analysis in CANDELS GOODS-South
• The AGN fuelling/feedback cycle in nearby radio galaxies - I. ALMA observations and early results
• LOFAR-Boötes: Properties of high- and low-excitation radio galaxies at $0.5<z<2.0$
• Accretion mode versus radio morphology in the LOFAR Deep Fields
• The Large Area Radio Galaxy Evolution Spectroscopic Survey (LARGESS): Survey design, data catalogue and GAMA/WiggleZ spectroscopy
• Extremely deep 150 MHz source counts from the LoTSS Deep Fields
• Deep sub-arcsecond widefield imaging of the Lockman Hole field at 144 MHz
• Co-evolution of black hole accretion and star formation in galaxies up to z=3.5
• Resolving a dusty, star-forming SHiZELS galaxy at z=2.2 with HST, ALMA and SINFONI on kiloparsec scales
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The environments of high- and low- excitation radio galaxies
• The XXL Survey: XXXVI. Evolution and black hole feedback of high-excitation and low-excitation radio galaxies in XXL-S
• The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey Deep fields: A new analysis of low-frequency radio luminosity as a star-formation tracer in the Lockman Hole region
• The Effect of Minor and Major Mergers on the Evolution of Low Excitation Radio Galaxies

Cited by in corpus (27)

• The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation
• The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey Deep Fields Data Release 1: V. Survey description, source classifications and host galaxy properties
• MIGHTEE: the nature of the radio-loud AGN population
• The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey: the radio view of the cosmic star formation history
• A Global Inventory of Feedback
• Jets in radio galaxies and quasars: an observational perspective
• Cosmic evolution of radio-AGN feedback: confronting models with data
• The fundamental plane of black hole activity for low-luminosity radio active galactic nuclei across 1 < z < 4
• A Quick Look at the 3GHz Radio Sky. II. Hunting for DRAGNs in the VLA Sky Survey
• Extragalactic Peaked-Spectrum Radio Sources at Low-Frequencies are Young Radio Galaxies
• The LOFAR-eFEDS survey: The incidence of radio and X-ray AGN and the disk-jet connection
• Radio AGN Selection and Characterization in Three Deep-Drilling Fields of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time
• The LOFAR Two Metre Sky Survey Data Release 2: Probabilistic Spectral Source Classifications and Faint Radio Source Demographics
• The evolution of cosmic ray electrons in the cosmic web: seeding by AGN, star formation and shocks
• The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey: Deep Fields Data Release 2. I. The ELAIS-N1 field
• A super-linear "radio-AGN main sequence'' links mean radio-AGN power and galaxy stellar mass since z$\sim$3
• MeerKAT follow-up of enigmatic GLEAM 4-Jy (G4Jy) sources
• Cosmic evolution of radio-excess AGNs in quiescent and star-forming galaxies across $0<z<4$
• Prospects for Observing High-redshift Radio-loud Quasars in the SKA Era: Paving the Way for 21-cm Forest Observations
• A novel Bayesian approach for decomposing the radio emission of quasars: II. Link between quasar radio emission and black hole mass
• The environments of the radio galaxy population in SIMBA
• The global energetics of radio AGN kinetic feedback in the local universe
• Pulsar B1237+25 Aberration/Retardation Analysis from Decimeter to Decameter Wavelength: Challenge to "Radius-to-Frequency Mapping"
• The FLAMINGO simulations data release
• MIGHTEE: The dark matter haloes, duty cycle and mechanical feedback from radio-AGN up to $z\sim 2.5$
• Radio Galaxy Zoo: Morphological classification by Fanaroff-Riley designation using self-supervised pre-training
• An empirical model of the extragalactic radio background