Radio Continuum Emission at 1.4 GHz from KISS Emission-Line Galaxies

Abstract

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.