The Clustering of Active Galactic Nuclei and Star Forming Galaxies in the LoTSS DeepFields
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$$\lesssim$1.5 for faint sources, $S_{\textrm{144 MHz}}$$\geq$200 $μ$Jy. We measure the angular auto-correlation of LOFAR sources in redshift bins and their cross-correlation with multi-wavelength 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 AGN 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 which reside in quiescent galaxies (QLERGs), 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.
Publication Details
- Journal
- ArXiv.org
- Published
- 2025-10-01
- Primary Topic
- Cell Image Analysis Techniques
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- UK Research and Innovation
- Leverhulme Trust
- European Commission
- University of Hertfordshire
- Science Foundation Ireland
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
- Université d'Orléans
- Ministerium für Innovation, Wissenschaft und Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
- Gauss Centre for Supercomputing
- Observatoire de Paris, Université de Recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- DST-NRF Centre Of Excellence In Tree Health Biotechnology