2004/02/10 by L. L. Cowie, A. J. Barger, E. B. Fomalont +1 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Luminosity #Luminosity function #Luminous infrared galaxy #Physics #Population #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #Radio galaxy #Redshift #Star formation #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/383198
published as Astrophys.J. 603 (2004) L69-L72 · ApJ Letters in press
arxiv created 2004/02/10 · openalex publication_date 2004/02/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We use redshift observations of two deep 1.4 GHz fields to probe the evolution of the bright end of the radio galaxy luminosity function to z = 1.5. We show that the number of galaxies with radio power that would correspond locally to an ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIG) evolves rapidly over this redshift range. The optical spectra and X-ray luminosities are used to refine this result by separating the sources with clear active galactic nucleus (AGN) signatures from those that may be dominated by star formation. Both populations show extremely rapid evolution over this redshift range. We find that the number of sources with ULIG radio power and no clear AGN signatures evolves as (1 + z ) 7 .