1997/11/03 by P. N. Best, Best, P. N., M. S. Longair +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9711010
12 pages including 4 figures. LaTeX, using knawproc.cls. To appear in proceedings of `The most distant radio galaxies', Amsterdam, 15-17th October 1997
arxiv created 1997/11/03 · openalex publication_date 1997/11/03 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present evidence that the 3CR radio galaxies at redshift one are already very massive, highly dynamically evolved galaxies, which lie at the heart of (proto--)cluster environments. Since nearby 3CR double radio sources are generally found in more isolated surroundings, the galactic environments of these galaxies must change dramatically with redshift. Therefore, the original `uniform population, closed box' interpretation of the infrared K--magnitude vs redshift relationship no longer appears valid. We propose a new interpretation: the powerful radio galaxies selected at high and low redshift have different evolutionary histories, but must contain a similar mass of stars, a few times 10-to-the-power-11 solar masses, and so conspire to produce the `passively evolving' K-z relation observed. We discuss this model in the context of the current understanding of powerful radio sources and, in light of this new model, we compare the K-z relation of the 3CR galaxies with those derived for lower power radio galaxies and for brightest cluster galaxies.