The clustering of active galactic nuclei and star-forming galaxies in the LoTSS Deep Fields

ABSTRACT Using deep observations across three of the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey Deep Fields, this work measures the angular clustering of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) and low-excitation radio galaxies (LERGs) to $z$$\lesssim$1.5 for faint sources, $S_{\textrm {144~MHz}}$$\ge$200 $\mu$Jy. We measure the angular auto-correlation of LOFAR sources in redshift bins and their cross-correlation with multiwavelength sources to measure the evolving galaxy bias for SFGs and LERGs. Our work shows the bias of the radio-selected SFGs increases from $b$ = $0.90^{+0.11}_{-0.10}$ at $z$$\sim$0.2 to $b$ = $2.94^{+0.36}_{-0.36}$ at $z$$\sim$1.2; faster than the assumed $b(z)$$\propto$$1/D(z)$ models adopted in previous LOFAR cosmology studies (at sensitivities where active galactic nuclei dominate), but in broad agreement with previous work. We further study the luminosity dependence of bias for SFGs and find little evidence for any luminosity dependence at fixed redshift, although uncertainties remain large for the sample sizes available. The LERG population instead shows a weaker redshift evolution with $b$ = $2.33^{+0.28}_{-0.27}$ at $z$$\sim$0.7 to $b$ = $2.65^{+0.57}_{-0.55}$ at $z$$\sim$1.2, though it is also consistent with the assumed bias evolution model ($b(z)$$\propto$$1/D(z)$) within the measured uncertainties. For those LERGs that reside in quiescent galaxies, there is weak evidence that they are more biased than the general LERG population and evolve from $b$ = $2.62^{+0.33}_{-0.33}$ at $z$$\sim$0.7 to $b$ = $3.08^{+0.85}_{-0.84}$ at $z$$\sim$1.2. This suggests the halo environment of radio sources may be related to their properties. These measurements can help constrain models for the bias evolution of these source populations, and can help inform multi-tracer analyses.