Radio galaxy host properties spanning three dex in radio luminosity

Chris J. Willott, Ross J. McLure, Matt J. Jarvis, Steve Rawlings, Gary J. Hill, Ewan Mitchell, James S. Dunlop

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

We describe a major study of radio source host galaxies being carried out with the HST and ground-based facilities. Our sample is selected from 4 complete samples with different radio flux-density limits, giving a range of three orders of magnitude in radio luminosity at a fixed epoch (/z=0.5). High-resolution HST WFPC2 imaging shows that all 44 radio galaxies have flux distributions well fit by an r1/4 law and lying on the Kormendy relation defined by lower redshift ellipticals with a shift in the zero-point to account for passive evolution. Spectroscopic follow-up enables stellar velocity dispersions to be determined and black hole masses estimated. The clustering environments of the radio galaxies are being probed via multi-colour wide-field imaging. Together, these data allow a detailed investigation of how factors such as clustering environment, close interactions and star-formation history affect the accretion rate, ionizing luminosity and jet production from supermassive black holes.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)187-191
JournalNew Astronomy Reviews
Volume47
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2003

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