EMU/GAMA: A new approach to characterising radio luminosity functions

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Prathap, J., Hopkins, A. M., Afonso, J., Bilicki, M., Cowley, M., Croom, S. M., Gordon, Y., Phillipps, S., Sadler, E. M., Shabala, S. S., Ahmed, U. T., Amarantidis, S., Brown, M. J. I., Carvajal, R., Leahy, D., Marvil, J. R., Mukherjee, T., Willingham, J., Zafar, T.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Prathap, J.
Hopkins, A. M.
Afonso, J.
Bilicki, M.
Cowley, M.
Croom, S. M.
Gordon, Y.
Phillipps, S.
Sadler, E. M.
Shabala, S. S.
Ahmed, U. T.
Amarantidis, S.
Brown, M. J. I.
Carvajal, R.
Leahy, D.
Marvil, J. R.
Mukherjee, T.
Willingham, J.
Zafar, T.
author_facet Prathap, J.
Hopkins, A. M.
Afonso, J.
Bilicki, M.
Cowley, M.
Croom, S. M.
Gordon, Y.
Phillipps, S.
Sadler, E. M.
Shabala, S. S.
Ahmed, U. T.
Amarantidis, S.
Brown, M. J. I.
Carvajal, R.
Leahy, D.
Marvil, J. R.
Mukherjee, T.
Willingham, J.
Zafar, T.
contents This study characterises the radio luminosity functions (RLFs) for SFGs and AGN using statistical redshift estimation in the absence of comprehensive spectroscopic data. Sensitive radio surveys over large areas detect many sources with faint optical and infrared counterparts, for which redshifts and spectra are unavailable. This challenges our attempt to understand the population of radio sources. Statistical tools are often used to model parameters (such as redshift) as an alternative to observational data. Using the data from GAMA G23 and EMU early science observations, we explore simple statistical techniques to estimate the redshifts in order to measure the RLFs of the G23 radio sources as a whole and for SFGs and AGN separately. Redshifts and AGN/SFG classifications are assigned statistically for those radio sources without spectroscopic data. The calculated RLFs are compared with existing studies, and the results suggest that the RLFs match remarkably well for low redshift galaxies with an optical counterpart. We use a more realistic high redshift distribution to model the redshifts of (most likely) high redshift radio sources and find that the LFs from our approach match well with measured LFs. We also look at strategies to compare the RLFs of radio sources without an optical counterpart to existing studies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_11453
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle EMU/GAMA: A new approach to characterising radio luminosity functions
Prathap, J.
Hopkins, A. M.
Afonso, J.
Bilicki, M.
Cowley, M.
Croom, S. M.
Gordon, Y.
Phillipps, S.
Sadler, E. M.
Shabala, S. S.
Ahmed, U. T.
Amarantidis, S.
Brown, M. J. I.
Carvajal, R.
Leahy, D.
Marvil, J. R.
Mukherjee, T.
Willingham, J.
Zafar, T.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
This study characterises the radio luminosity functions (RLFs) for SFGs and AGN using statistical redshift estimation in the absence of comprehensive spectroscopic data. Sensitive radio surveys over large areas detect many sources with faint optical and infrared counterparts, for which redshifts and spectra are unavailable. This challenges our attempt to understand the population of radio sources. Statistical tools are often used to model parameters (such as redshift) as an alternative to observational data. Using the data from GAMA G23 and EMU early science observations, we explore simple statistical techniques to estimate the redshifts in order to measure the RLFs of the G23 radio sources as a whole and for SFGs and AGN separately. Redshifts and AGN/SFG classifications are assigned statistically for those radio sources without spectroscopic data. The calculated RLFs are compared with existing studies, and the results suggest that the RLFs match remarkably well for low redshift galaxies with an optical counterpart. We use a more realistic high redshift distribution to model the redshifts of (most likely) high redshift radio sources and find that the LFs from our approach match well with measured LFs. We also look at strategies to compare the RLFs of radio sources without an optical counterpart to existing studies.
title EMU/GAMA: A new approach to characterising radio luminosity functions
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.11453