The three-dimensional clustering of radio galaxies in the Texas--Oxford NVSS structure survey

Abstract

We present a clustering analysis of the Texas—Oxford NVSS Structure (TONS) radio galaxy redshift survey. This complete flux-limited survey consists of 268 radio galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts in three separate regions of the sky covering a total of 165 deg 2 . By going to faint radio flux densities (s 1.4 ≥ 3 mJy) but imposing relatively bright optical limits (E≈R≈ 19.5), the TONS sample is optimized for looking at the clustering properties of low-luminosity radio galaxies in a region of moderate (0 ≲z≲ 0.5) redshifts. We use the two-point correlation function to determine the clustering strength of the combined TONS08 and TONS12 subsamples and find a clustering strength of r 0 (z) = 8.7 ± 1.6 Mpc (h= 0.7). If we assume growth of structure by linear theory and that the median redshift is 0.3, this corresponds to r 0 (0) = 11.0 ± 2.0 Mpc, which is consistent with the clustering strength of the underlying host galaxies (∼2.5 L ★ ellipticals) of the TONS radio galaxy population.