High-excitation Radio Galaxies Research Articles

A Machine Learning Made Catalog of FR-II Radio Galaxies from the FIRST Survey

We present an independent catalog (FRIIRGcat) of 45,241 Fanaroff–Riley Type II (FR-II) radio galaxies compiled from the Very Large Array Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-centimeters (FIRST) survey and employed the deep learning method. Among them, optical and/or infrared counterparts are identified for 41,425 FR-IIs. This catalog spans luminosities 2.63 × 1022 ≤ L rad ≤ 6.76 × 1029 W Hz−1 and redshifts up to z = 5.01. The spectroscopic classification indicates that there are 1431 low-excitation radio galaxies and 260 high-excitation radio galaxies. Among the spectroscopically identified sources, black hole masses are estimated for 4837 FR-IIs, which are in 107.5 ≲ M BH ≲ 109.5 M ⊙. Interestingly, this catalog reveals a couple of giant radio galaxies (GRGs), which are already in the existing GRG catalog, confirming the efficiency of this FR-II catalog. Furthermore, 284 new GRGs are unveiled in this new FR-II sample; they have the largest projected sizes ranging from 701 to 1209 kpc and are located at redshifts 0.31 < z < 2.42. Finally, we explore the distribution of the jet position angle and it shows that the faint Images of the FIRST images are significantly affected by the systematic effect (the observing beams). The method presented in this work is expected to be applicable to the radio sky surveys that are currently being conducted because they have finely refined telescope arrays. On the other hand, we are expecting that further new methods will be dedicated to solving this problem.

Extragalactic peaked-spectrum radio sources at low frequencies are young radio galaxies

We present a sample of 373 peaked-spectrum (PS) sources with spectral peaks around 150 MHz, selected using a subset of the two LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) all-sky surveys, the LOFAR Two Meter Sky Survey and the LOFAR LBA Sky Survey. These LOFAR surveys are the most sensitive low-frequency widefield surveys to date, allowing us to select low-luminosity peaked-spectrum sources. Our sample increases the number of known PS sources in our survey area by a factor 50. The 5 GHz luminosity distribution of our PS sample shows we sample the lowest luminosity PS sources to date by nearly an order of magnitude. Since high-frequency gigahertz-peaked spectrum sources and compact steep-spectrum sources are hypothesised to be the precursors to large radio galaxies, we investigate whether this is also the case for our sample of low-frequency PS sources. Using optical line emission criteria, we find that our PS sources are predominately high-excitation radio galaxies instead of low-excitation radio galaxies, corresponding to a quickly evolving population. We compute the radio source counts of our PS sample, and find they are scaled down by a factor of ≈40 compared to a general sample of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN). This implies that the lifetimes of PS sources are 40 times shorter than large-scale radio galaxies if their luminosity functions are identical. To investigate this, we compute the first radio luminosity function for a homogeneously selected PS sample. We find that for 144 MHz luminosities ≳1025 W Hz−1, the PS luminosity function has the same shape as an unresolved radio-loud AGN population, but shifted down by a factor of ≈-pagination10. We interpret this as strong evidence that these high-luminosity PS sources evolve into large-scale radio-loud AGN. For local low-luminosity PS sources, there is a surplus of PS sources, which we hypothesise to be the addition of frustrated PS sources that do not evolve into large-scale AGN.

The environments of the radio galaxy population in simba

ABSTRACT We investigate the environmental properties of the z = 0 radio galaxy population using the simba cosmological hydrodynamic simulation. We identify centrals and satellites from a population of high and low excitation radio galaxies (HERGs and LERGs) in simba, and study their global properties. We find that $\sim 20{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of radio galaxies are satellites, and that there are insignificant differences in the global properties of LERGs based on their central/satellite classification. HERG satellites display lower values of star formation, 1.4 GHz radio luminosity, and Eddington fractions than HERG centrals. We further investigate the environments of radio galaxies and show that HERGs typically live in less dense environments, similar to star-forming galaxies. The environments of high-mass LERGs are similar to non-radio galaxies, but low-mass LERGs live in underdense environments similar to HERGs. LERGs with overmassive black holes reside in the most dense environments, while HERGs with overmassive black holes reside in underdense environments. The richness of a LERG’s environment decreases with increasing Eddington fraction, and the environments of all radio galaxies do not depend on radio luminosity for $\, P_{\rm 1.4~GHz}\lt 10^{24} \rm {~W~Hz}^{-1}$. Complementing these results, we find that LERGs cluster on the same scale as the total galaxy population, while multiple HERGs are not found within the same dark matter halo. Finally, we show that high density environments support the growth of HERGs rather than LERGs at z = 2. Simba predicts that with more sensitive surveys, we will find populations of radio galaxies in environments much similar to the total galaxy population.

SDSS-IV MaNGA: Identification and multiwavelength properties of Type-1 AGN in the DR15 sample

ABSTRACT We present a method to identify type-1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the central 3 arcsec integrated spectra of galaxies in the MaNGA DR15 sample. It is based on flux ratios estimates in spectral bands flanking the expected h α broad component h αBC. The high signal-to-noise ratio obtained (mean S/N = 84) permits the identification of h αBC without prior subtraction of the host galaxy (HG) stellar component. A final sample of 47 type-1 AGN is reported out of 4700 galaxies at z &amp;lt; 0.15. The results were compared with those from other methods based on the SDSS DR7 and MaNGA data. Detection of type-1 AGN in those works compared to our method goes from 26 per cent to 81 per cent. Spectral indexes were used to classify the type-1 AGN spectra according to different levels of AGN-HG contribution, finding 9 AGN-dominated, 14 intermediate, and 24 HG-dominated objects. Complementary data in NIR-MIR allowed us to identify type I AGN-dominated objects as blue and HG-dominated as red in the WISE colours. From NVSS and FIRST radio continuum data, we identify 5 HERGs (high-excitation radio galaxies) and 4 LERGs (low-excitation radio galaxies), three showing evidence of radio-jets in the FIRST maps. Additional X-ray data from ROSAT allowed us to build [O iii] and h αBC versus X-ray, NIR-MIR, and radio continuum diagrams, showing that L(h αBC) and L([O iii]) provide good correlations. The range in h αBC luminosity is wide 38 &amp;lt; logL(h αBC) &amp;lt; 44, with log FWHM(h αBC) ∼ 3–4, covering a range of Eddington ratios of −5.15 &amp;lt; log Lbol/LEdd &amp;lt; 0.70. Finally, we also identify and report ten possible changing-look AGN candidates.

Do AGN triggering mechanisms vary with radio power? – II. The importance of mergers as a function of radio power and optical luminosity

ABSTRACT Investigation of the triggering mechanisms of radio active galactic nuclei (radio AGN) is important for improving our general understanding of galaxy evolution. In the first paper in this series, detailed morphological analysis of high-excitation radio galaxies (HERGs) with intermediate radio powers suggested that the importance of triggering via galaxy mergers and interactions increases strongly with AGN radio power and weakly with optical emission-line luminosity. Here, we use an online classification interface to expand our morphological analysis to a much larger sample of 155 active galaxies (3CR radio galaxies, radio-intermediate HERGs, and Type 2 quasars) that covers a broad range in both 1.4 GHz radio power and [O iii] λ5007 emission-line luminosity. All active galaxy samples are found to exhibit excesses in their rates of morphological disturbance relative to 378 stellar-mass- and redshift-matched non-active control galaxies classified randomly and blindly alongside them. These excesses are highest for the 3CR HERGs (4.7σ) and Type 2 quasar hosts (3.9σ), supporting the idea that galaxy mergers provide the dominant triggering mechanism for these subgroups. When the full active galaxy sample is considered, there is clear evidence to suggest that the enhancement in the rate of disturbance relative to the controls increases strongly with [O iii] λ5007 emission-line luminosity but not with 1.4 GHz radio power. Evidence that the dominant AGN host types change from early-type galaxies at high radio powers to late-type galaxies at low radio powers is also found, suggesting that triggering by secular, disc-based processes holds more importance for lower-power radio AGN.

The origin of X-ray emission in 3CRR sources: Hints from mid-infrared Spitzer observations

Aims. Whether X-ray emission in radio-loud (RL) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) originates from disk coronae or jets is still under debate. For example, the positive relationships in radio-quiet AGNs (such as the optical to X-ray spectral index αOX and Eddington ration λO as well as the X-ray photon index Γ and λO) are not detected in RLAGNs. We intend to further investigate this issue in this work. Methods. A sample of 27 luminous sources (including 16 quasars and 11 high-excitation radio galaxies) was selected from the 3CRR catalog to reinvestigate the origin of X-ray emission in RLAGNs, where the X-ray and mid-infrared fluxes are observed by Chandra/XMM-Newton and Spitzer, respectively. Results. It is found for the first time that there is a significant relationship between the mid-infrared to X-ray spectral index αIX and λIR for whole sample, while there is no relationship between αOX and λO in quasars. There are strong positive relationships between both LR − LX and LUV − LX panels, which can be well fitted by the disk-corona model. However, there is no significant relationship between Γ and λIR. The possible reason is related to the effects of the large-scale magnetic field in RLAGNs. Conclusions. We suggest that the X-ray emission in high-excitation RLAGNs originates from a disk-corona system.

The relativistic jet dichotomy and the end of the blazar sequence

ABSTRACT Our understanding of the unification of jetted AGN has evolved greatly as jet samples have increased in size. Here, based on the largest-ever sample of over 2000 well-sampled jet spectral energy distributions, we examine the synchrotron peak frequency – peak luminosity plane, and find little evidence for the anticorrelation known as the blazar sequence. Instead, we find strong evidence for a dichotomy in jets, between those associated with efficient or ‘quasar-mode’ accretion (strong/type II jets) and those associated with inefficient accretion (weak/type I jets). Type II jets include those hosted by high-excitation radio galaxies, flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQ), and most low-frequency-peaked BL Lac objects. Type I jets include those hosted by low-excitation radio galaxies and blazars with synchrotron peak frequency above 1015 Hz (nearly all BL Lac objects). We have derived estimates of the total jet power for over 1000 of our sources from low-frequency radio observations, and find that the jet dichotomy does not correspond to a division in jet power. Rather, type II jets are produced at all observed jet powers, down to the lowest levels in our sample, while type I jets range from very low to moderately high jet powers, with a clear upper bound at L 300MHz ∼1043 erg s−1. The range of jet power in each class matches exactly what is expected for efficient (i.e. a few to 100 % Eddington) or inefficient ( &amp;lt;0.5% Eddington) accretion on to black holes ranging in mass from $10^7{\, {\rm to}\,}10^{9.5}\, {\rm M}_\odot$.

Jet–Accretion System in the Nearby mJy Radio Galaxies

Abstract It is generally thought that FRII radio galaxies host thin optically thick disks, while FRIs are powered by advection-dominated accretion flows. Sources with an efficient engine are optically classified as high-excitation radio galaxies (HERGs) and those with an inefficient motor as low-excitation radio galaxies (LERGs). Recently, the study of radio galaxies down to mJy fluxes has cast serious doubts on the LERG-FRI and HERG-FRII correspondence, revealing that many LERGs show FRII radio morphologies. The FR catalogs recently compiled by Capetti et al. and Baldi et al. have allowed us to explore this issue in the local (z ≤ 0.15) mJy universe. Our statistical study shows that the majority of nearby mJy objects are in a late stage of their life. FRII-LERGs appear more similar to the old FRI-LERGs than to the young FRII-HERGs. FRII-LERGs may be aged HERGs that, having exhausted their cold fuel, have changed their accretion regime or are a separate LERG class particularly efficient in launching jets. Exploiting the empirical relations that convert L [O III] and L 1.4 GHz into accretion power and jet kinetic power, respectively, we observed that LERGs with similar masses and accretion rates seem to expel jets of different powers. We speculate that intrinsic differences related to the black hole properties (spin and magnetic field at its horizon) can determine the observed spread in jet luminosity. In this view, FRII-LERGs should have the fastest spinning black holes and/or the most intense magnetic fluxes. On the contrary, compact LERGs (i.e., FR0s) should host extremely slow black holes and/or weak magnetic fields.

The radio galaxy population in the simba simulations

ABSTRACT We examine the 1.4 GHz radio luminosities of galaxies arising from star formation and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) within the state-of-the-art cosmological hydrodynamic simulation Simba. Simba grows black holes via gravitational torque limited accretion from cold gas and Bondi accretion from hot gas, and employs AGN feedback including jets at low Eddington ratios. We define a population of radio loud AGNs (RLAGNs) based on the presence of ongoing jet feedback. Within RLAGN, we define high and low excitation radio galaxies (HERGs and LERGs) based on their dominant mode of black hole accretion: torque limited accretion representing feeding from a cold disc, or Bondi representing advection-dominated accretion from a hot medium. Simba predicts good agreement with the observed radio luminosity function (RLF) and its evolution, overall as well as separately for HERGs and LERGs. Quiescent galaxies with AGN-dominated radio flux dominate the RLF at $\gtrsim 10^{22-23}$ W Hz−1, while star formation dominates at lower radio powers. Overall, RLAGNs have higher black hole accretion rates and lower star formation rates than non-RLAGN at a given stellar mass or velocity dispersion, but have similar black hole masses. Simba predicts an LERG number density of 8.53 Mpc−3, ∼10× higher than for HERGs, broadly as observed. While LERGs dominate among most massive galaxies with the largest black holes and HERGs dominate at high specific star formation rates, they otherwise largely populate similar-sized dark matter haloes and have similar host galaxy properties. Simba thus predicts that deeper radio surveys will reveal an increasing overlap between the host galaxy demographics of HERGs and LERGs.

H i absorption towards radio active galactic nuclei of different accretion modes

ABSTRACT We present results of H i absorption experiment done using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) towards 27 low- and intermediate-luminosity ($P_{\rm 1.4 GHz}\, \sim 10^{23}$-1026 W Hz−1) radio active galactic nuclei (AGNs), classified as either low excitation radio galaxies (LERGs) or high excitation radio galaxies (HERGs) and with WISE colour W2[4.6 μm]−W3[12 μm]&amp;gt; 2. We report H i absorption detection towards seven radio AGNs, six of which are new. Combined with other sources from literature classified as LERGs or HERGs, we confirm our earlier result that compact radio AGNs with WISE colour W2−W3 &amp;gt; 2 have higher detection rates compared to those with W2−W3 &amp;lt; 2. We find that H i absorption detection rate is higher for HERGs (37.0$^{+15.8}_{-11.5}$ per cent) compared to LERGs (22.0$^{+3.9}_{-3.4}$ per cent), mainly due to a larger fraction of HERGs being gas and dust rich with a younger stellar population compared to LERGs. However, for similar compact radio structures and host galaxies with WISE colours W2−W3 &amp;gt; 2, we don’t find any significant difference in detection rates of two types of AGNs implying detection of H i gas may not necessarily mean high excitation mode AGN. We further analysed the kinematics towards these sources. We find that while LERGs show a wide range in the shift of centroid velocities ($\sim \, -$479 to +356 km s−1) relative to the optical systemic velocity, most of the HERGs have centroid velocity shift less than 200 km s−1, possibly due to differences in jet-interstellar medium interaction.

Radio morphology–accretion mode link in Fanaroff–Riley type II low-excitation radio galaxies

ABSTRACT Fanaroff–Riley type II (FR II) low-excitation radio galaxies (LERGs) are characterized by weak nuclear excitation on parsec-scales and properties typical of powerful FR IIs (defined as high-excitation radio galaxies, hereafter HERGs/BLRGs) on kiloparsec-scales. Since a link between the accretion properties and the power of the produced jets is expected both from theory and observations, their nature is still debated. In this work, we investigate the X-ray properties of a complete sample of 19 FR II-LERGs belonging to the 3CR catalogue, exploiting Chandra and XMM–Newton archival data. We also analyse 32 FR II-HERGs/BLRGs with Chandra data as a control sample. We compared FR II-LERG and FR II-HERG/BLRG X-ray properties and optical data available in literature to obtain a wide outlook of their behaviour. The low accretion rate estimates for FR II-LERGs, from both X-ray and optical bands, allow us to firmly reject the hypothesis as they are the highly obscured counterpart of powerful FR II-HERGs/BLRGs. Therefore, at least two hypothesis can be invoked to explain the FR II-LERG nature: (i) they are evolving from classical FR IIs because of the depletion of accreting cold gas in the nuclear region, while the extended radio emission is the heritage of a past efficiently accreting activity; and (ii) they are an intrinsically distinct class of objects with respect to classical FR Is/FR IIs. Surprisingly, in this direction, a correlation between accretion rates and environmental richness is found in our sample. The richer the environment is, the more inefficient is the accretion. In this framework, the FR II-LERGs are intermediate between FR Is and FR II-HERGs/BLRGs both in terms of accretion rate and environment.

The radio properties of high-excitation radio galaxies with intermediate radio powers

ABSTRACT In the past decade, high-sensitivity radio surveys have revealed that the local radio active galactic nucleus population is dominated by moderate-to-low power sources with emission that is compact on galaxy scales. High-excitation radio galaxies (HERGs) with intermediate radio powers (22.5 &amp;lt; log (L1.4 GHz) &amp;lt; 25.0 W Hz−1) form an important sub-group of this population, since there is strong evidence that they also drive multiphase outflows on the scales of galaxy bulges. Here, we present high-resolution Very Large Array observations at 1.5, 4.5, and 7.5 GHz of a sample of 16 such HERGs in the local universe (z &amp;lt; 0.1), conducted in order to investigate the morphology, extent, and spectra of their radio emission in detail, down to sub-kpc scales. We find that the majority (56 per cent) have unresolved structures at the limiting angular resolution of the observations (∼0.3 arcsec). Although similar in the compactness of their radio structures, these sources have steep radio spectra and host galaxy properties that distinguish them from local low-excitation radio galaxies that are unresolved on similar scales. The remaining sources exhibit extended radio structures with projected diameters ∼1.4–19.0 kpc and a variety of morphologies: three double-lobed; two large-scale diffuse; one jetted and ‘S-shaped’; one undetermined. Only 19 per cent of the sample therefore exhibit the double-lobed/edge-brightened structures often associated with their counterparts at high and low radio powers: radio-powerful HERGs and Seyfert galaxies, respectively. Additional high-resolution observations are required to investigate this further, and to probe the ≲300 pc scales on which some Seyfert galaxies show extended structures.

Do AGN triggering mechanisms vary with radio power? – I. Optical morphologies of radio-intermediate HERGs

ABSTRACT Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with intermediate radio powers are capable of driving multiphase outflows in galaxy bulges, and are also more common than their high-radio-power counterparts. In-depth characterization of the typical host galaxies and likely triggering mechanisms for this population is therefore required in order to better understand the role of radio AGN feedback in galaxy evolution. Here, we use deep optical imaging data to study the detailed host morphologies of a complete sample of 30 local radio AGNs with high-excitation optical emission (HERG) spectra and intermediate radio powers [ z &lt; 0.1; 22.5 &lt; log($L_{\rm 1.4GHz}$) &lt; 24.0 W Hz-1]. The fraction of hosts with morphological signatures of mergers and interactions is greatly reduced compared to the 2Jy radio-powerful galaxies [log($L_{\rm 1.4GHz}$) &gt; 25.0 W Hz-1] with strong optical emission lines: 53 ± 9 per cent compared with 94 ± 4 per cent. In addition, the most radio-powerful half of the sample has a higher frequency of morphological disturbance than the least radio-powerful half (67 ± 12 per cent and 40 ± 13 per cent, respectively), including the eight most highly disturbed galaxies. This suggests that the importance of triggering nuclear activity in high-excitation radio galaxies (HERGs) through mergers and interactions reduces with radio power. Both visual inspection and detailed light profile modelling reveal a mixed population of early-type and late-type morphologies, contrary to the massive elliptical galaxy hosts of radio-powerful AGNs. The prevalence of late-type hosts could suggest that triggering via secular, disc-based processes has increased importance for HERGs with lower radio powers (e.g. disc instabilities and large-scale bars).

The XXL Survey

The evolution of the comoving kinetic luminosity densities (Ωkin) of the radio loud high-excitation radio galaxies (RL HERGs) and the low-excitation radio galaxies (LERGs) in the ultimate XMM extragalactic survey south (XXL-S) field is presented. The wide area and deep radio and optical data of XXL-S have allowed the construction of the radio luminosity functions (RLFs) of the RL HERGs and LERGs across a wide range in radio luminosity out to high redshift (z = 1.3). The LERG RLFs display weak evolution: Φ(z)∝(1 + z)0.67 ± 0.17 in the pure density evolution (PDE) case and Φ(z)∝(1 + z)0.84 ± 0.31 in the pure luminosity evolution (PLE) case. The RL HERG RLFs demonstrate stronger evolution than the LERGs: Φ(z)∝(1 + z)1.81 ± 0.15 for PDE and Φ(z)∝(1 + z)3.19 ± 0.29 for PLE. Using a scaling relation to convert the 1.4 GHz radio luminosities into kinetic luminosities, the evolution of Ωkin was calculated for the RL HERGs and LERGs and compared to the predictions from various simulations. The prediction for the evolution of radio mode feedback in the Semi-Analytic Galaxy Evolution (SAGE) model is consistent with the Ωkin evolution for all XXL-S RL AGN (all RL HERGs and LERGs), indicating that the kinetic luminosities of RL AGN may be able to balance the radiative cooling of the hot phase of the IGM. Simulations that predict the Ωkin evolution of LERG equivalent populations show similar slopes to the XXL-S LERG evolution, suggesting that observations of LERGs are well described by models of SMBHs that slowly accrete hot gas. On the other hand, models of RL HERG equivalent populations differ in their predictions. While LERGs dominate the kinetic luminosity output of RL AGN at all redshifts, the evolution of the RL HERGs in XXL-S is weaker compared to what other studies have found. This implies that radio mode feedback from RL HERGs is more prominent at lower redshifts than was previously thought.

On the unified scheme for high-excitation galaxies and quasars in 3CRR sample

In this paper, we use the distributions of luminosity (P) and radio size (D) to re-examine the consistency of the unified scheme of high-excitation radio galaxies and quasars in the recently updated 3CRR sample. Based on a standard cosmology, we derive theoretically and show from observed data, the luminosity limit above which the 3CRR objects are well-sampled. We find, on average, a quasar fraction $$\sim $$ 0.44 and galaxy-to-quasar size ratio $$\approx $$ 2. Assuming a relativistic outflow of jet materials, we find a mean angle to the line of sight in the range $$35^{\circ }\,\le \,\phi \,\le 44^{\circ }$$ for the quasars. On supposition of luminosity and orientation-dependent linear size evolution, expressed in a general functional form $$D_{(P,z,\phi )}\,\approx \,P^{\pm q}$$ (1+ $$z)^{-w}$$ sin $$\phi $$ , we show that above the flux detection threshold of the 3CRR sample, high-excitation galaxies and quasars undergo similar evolution with $$q = -\,0.5$$ ; $$w = -\,0.27$$ and luminosity independent evolution parameter $$x = 2.27$$ , when orientation effect is accounted for. The results are consistent with orientation-based unified scheme for radio galaxies and quasars.

The Differences between High Excitation Radio Galaxies and Low Excitation Radio Galaxies

Radio galaxies can be classified as Fanaroff-Riley (FR) I or FR II sources according to their radio morphology. FR I radio galaxies have an edge-darkened radio structure, while FR II galaxies are defined by edge-brightened radio jets terminating in compact hot spots. Besides the FR dichotomy, radio galaxies can also be separated into high excitation galaxies (HEGs) and low excitation galaxies (LEGs) by their spectroscopic nuclear properties: HEGs have [O III] / Ha > 0.2 and equivalent width of [O III] > 3 Å, while LEGs have relatively weaker [OIII]. The distinction in these two kinds of the sources is still not clear. Someone speculated that the differences may be caused by different accretion modes in them, i.e., LEGs are powered by hot gas while cold material is accreted in HEGs. However, all HEGs have FR II radio morphology, but LEGs involves both FR I and FR II jet. With this in mind, we speculate that besides accretion mode there should be other parameters to determine the classification of RGs, such as the jet interaction with the external environment and the luminosity of host galaxy.

The XXL Survey

The classification of the host galaxies of the radio sources in the 25 deg2 ultimate XMM extragalactic survey south field (XXL-S) is presented. XXL-S was surveyed at 2.1 GHz with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and is thus far the largest area radio survey conducted down to rms flux densities of σ ~ 41 μJy beam−1. Of the 6287 radio sources in XXL-S, 4758 (75.7%) were cross-matched to an optical counterpart using the likelihood ratio technique. There are 1110 spectroscopic redshifts and 3648 photometric redshifts available for the counterparts, of which 99.4% exist out to z ~ 4. A number of multiwavelength diagnostics, including X-ray luminosities, mid-infrared colours, spectral energy distribution fits, radio luminosities, and optical emission lines and colours, were used to classify the sources into three types: low-excitation radio galaxies (LERGs), high-excitation radio galaxies (HERGs), and star-forming galaxies (SFGs). The final sample contains 1729 LERGs (36.3%), 1159 radio-loud HERGs (24.4%), 296 radio-quiet HERGs (6.2%), 558 SFGs (11.7%), and 1016 unclassified sources (21.4%). The XXL-S sub-mJy radio source population is composed of ~75% active galactic nuclei and ~20% SFGs down to 0.2 mJy. The host galaxy properties of the HERGs in XXL-S are independent of the HERG selection, but the XXL-S LERG and SFG selection is, due to the low spectral coverage, largely determined by the known properties of those populations. Considering this caveat, the LERGs tend to exist in the most massive galaxies with low star formation rates and redder colours, whereas the HERGs and SFGs exist in galaxies of lower mass, higher star formation rates, and bluer colours. The fraction of blue host galaxies is higher for radio-quiet HERGs than for radio-loud HERGs. LERGs and radio-loud HERGs are found at all radio luminosities, but radio-loud HERGs tend to be more radio luminous than LERGs at a given redshift. These results are consistent with the emerging picture in which LERGs exist in the most massive quiescent galaxies typically found in clusters with hot X-ray halos and HERGs are associated with ongoing star formation in their host galaxies via the accretion of cold gas.

The distribution and lifetime of powerful radio galaxies as a function of environment and redshift

Correlations between jet power and active time for z < 0.1 high excitation and low excitation radio galaxies are explored as well as evidence in favor of a specific, non-random distribution for these objects including mid-infrared emitting radio galaxies as a function of environment and redshift. In addition, so-called weak line radio galaxies with FRII jet morphology have been identified as a class of active galaxies in the process of shutting down. This paper identifies common features between these seemingly disparate phenomena described above for the population of radio galaxies, and strings them together by way of a simple phenomenological framework that has shed light on the radio loud/radio quiet dichotomy, the jet-disk connection, and the distribution of all active galaxies as a function of redshift.

The Stripe 82 1–2 GHz Very Large Array Snapshot Survey: host galaxy properties and accretion rates of radio galaxies

A sample of 1161 radio galaxies with $0.01 < z < 0.7$ and $10^{21} < L_{1.4~\rm GHz} / \textrm{W Hz}^{-1} < 10^{27}$ is selected from the Stripe 82 1-2 GHz Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array Snapshot Survey, which covers 100 square degrees and has a 1$\sigma$ noise level of 88 $\mu$Jy beam$^{-1}$. Optical spectra are used to classify these sources as high excitation and low excitation radio galaxies (HERGs and LERGs), resulting in 60 HERGs, 149 LERGs and 600 `probable LERGs'. The host galaxies of the LERGs have older stellar populations than those of the HERGs, in agreement with previous results in the literature. We find that the HERGs tend to have higher Eddington-scaled accretion rates than the LERGs but that there is some overlap between the two distributions. We show that the properties of the host galaxies vary continuously with accretion rate, with the most slowly accreting sources having the oldest stellar populations, consistent with the idea that these sources lack a supply of cold gas. We find that 84 per cent of our sample release more than 10 per cent of their accretion power in their jets, showing that mechanical AGN feedback is significantly underestimated in many hydrodynamical simulations. There is a scatter of $\sim 2$ dex in the fraction of the accreted AGN power deposited back into the ISM in mechanical form, showing that the assumption in many simulations that there is a direct scaling between accretion rate and radio-mode feedback does not necessarily hold. We also find that mechanical feedback is significant for many of the HERGs in our sample as well as the LERGs.

A study of high-redshift AGN feedback in SZ cluster samples

We present a study of AGN feedback at higher redshifts ($0.3<z<1.2$) using Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) selected samples of clusters from the South-Pole Telescope and Atacama Cosmology Telescope surveys. In contrast to studies of nearby systems, we do not find a separation between cooling flow clusters and non-cooling flow clusters based on the radio luminosity of the central radio source. This lack may be due to the increased incidence of galaxy-galaxy mergers at higher redshift that triggers AGN activity. In support of this scenario, we find evidence for evolution in the radio luminosity function of the central radio source: while the lower-luminosity sources do not evolve much, the higher-luminosity sources show a strong increase in the frequency of their occurrence at higher redshifts. We interpret this evolution as an increase in high-excitation radio galaxies (HERGs) in massive clusters at $z>0.6$, implying a transition from HERG-mode accretion to lower-power low-excitation radio galaxy (LERG)-mode accretion at intermediate redshifts. Additionally, we use local radio-to-jet power scaling relations to estimate feedback power and find that half of the cooling flow systems in our sample probably have enough heating to balance cooling. However, we postulate that the local relations are likely not well suited to predict feedback power in high-luminosity HERGs, as they are derived from samples composed mainly of lower-luminosity LERGs.