2004/01/08 by J. Van Duyne, Jeffrey Van Duyne, Eli Beckerman +10 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/382713
Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal (April 2004); 23 pages, 16 figures
arxiv created 2004/01/08 · openalex publication_date 2004/04/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We have searched the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty centimeters (FIRST) and the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) 1.4 GHz radio surveys for sources that are coincident with emission-line galaxy (ELG) candidates from the KPNO International Spectroscopic Survey (KISS). A total of 207 of the 2157 KISS ELGs (∼10%) in the first two Hα-selected survey lists were found to possess radio detections in FIRST, NVSS, or both. Follow-up spectra exist for all of the radio detections, allowing us to determine the activity type (star-forming vs. active nucleus) for the entire sample. We explore the properties of the radio-detected KISS galaxies in order to gain a better insight into the nature of radio-emitting galaxies in the local universe ( z < 0.1). No dwarf galaxies were detected, despite the large numbers of low-luminosity galaxies present in KISS, suggesting that lower mass, lower luminosity objects do not possess strong galaxian-scale magnetic fields. Because of the selection technique used for KISS, our radio ELGs represent a quasi–volume-limited sample, which allows us to develop a clearer picture of the radio galaxy population at low redshift. Nearly two-thirds of the KISS radio galaxies are starburst or star-forming galaxies, which is in stark contrast to the results of flux-limited radio surveys, which are dominated by active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and elliptical galaxies (i.e., classical radio galaxies). While there are many AGNs among the KISS radio galaxies, there are no objects with large radio powers in our local volume. We derive a radio luminosity function (RLF) for the KISS ELGs that agrees very well with previous RLFs that adequately sample the lower luminosity radio population.