The LOFAR LBA Sky Survey: Deep Fields I. The Boötes Field
W. L. Williams, F. de Gasperin, M. J. H. Hardcastle, R. van Weeren, C. Tasse, T. W. Shimwell, P. N. Best, M. Bonato, M. Bondi, M. Brüggen, H. J. A. Röttgering, D. J. B. Smith
备注：
15 pages, 17 figures. Accepted for publication by A&A. Data available online at lofar-surveys.org
We present the first sub-mJy ($\approx0.7$ mJy beam$^{-1}$) survey to be completed below 100 MHz, which is over an order of magnitude deeper than previously achieved for widefield imaging of any field at these low frequencies. The high resolution ($15 \times 15$ arcsec) image of the Boötes field at 34-75 MHz is made from 56 hours of observation with the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) Low Band Antenna (LBA) system. The observations and data reduction, including direction-dependent calibration, are described here. We present a radio source catalogue containing 1,948 sources detected over an area of $23.6$ deg$^2$, with a peak flux density threshold of $5σ$. Using existing datasets, we characterise the astrometric and flux density uncertainties, finding a positional uncertainty of $\sim1.2$ arcsec and a flux density scale uncertainty of about 5 per cent. Using the available deep 144-MHz data, we identified 144-MHz counterparts to all the 54-MHz sources, and produced a matched catalogue within the deep optical coverage area containing 829 sources. We calculate the Euclidean-normalised differential source counts and investigate the low-frequency radio source spectral indices between 54 and 144 MHz, both of which show a general flattening in the radio spectral indices for lower flux density sources, from $\sim-0.75$ at 144-MHz flux densities between 100-1000 mJy to $\sim-0.5$ at 144-MHz flux densities between 5-10 mJy, due to a growing population of star forming galaxies and compact core-dominated AGN.
Investigating the radio emission in the Perseus cluster with LOFAR sub-80 MHz LBA
INAF – Istituto di Radioastromia（意大利国家天体物理研究所射电天文学研究所）；Leiden Observatory, Leiden University（莱顿大学莱顿天文台）；Université Laval（拉瓦尔大学）；Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto（多伦多大学邓普天文学与天体物理学研究所）；Università di Bologna（博洛尼亚大学）
Pulsars identified in the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey at 144 MHz
ASTRON, Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy（荷兰射电天文研究所）；Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam（阿姆斯特丹大学安东·潘内科克天体物理研究所）；Leiden Observatory, Leiden University（莱顿大学莱顿天文台）
Diffuse radio emission at the centre of galaxy clusters has been observed both in merging clusters on scales of Mpc, called giant radio haloes, and in relaxed systems with a cool-core on smaller scales, named mini haloes. Giant radio haloes and mini haloes are thought to be distinct classes of sources. However, recent observations have revealed the presence of diffuse radio emission on Mpc scales in clusters that do not show strong dynamical activity. RX J1720.1+2638 is a cool-core cluster, presenting both a bright central mini halo and a fainter diffuse, steep-spectrum emission extending beyo…
We present a sample of 373 peaked-spectrum (PS) sources with spectral peaks around 150MHz, selected using a subset of two LOFAR all-sky surveys, the LOFAR Two Meter Sky Survey and the LOFAR LBA Sky Survey. These surveys are the most sensitive low-frequency widefield surveys to date, allowing us to select low-luminosity PS sources. Our sample increases the number of known PS sources in our survey area by a factor 50. The 5GHz 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 PS sources and comp…
University of Groningen（格罗宁根大学）；ASTRON, Institute for Radio Astronomy（荷兰射电天文研究所）；University of Birmingham（伯明翰大学）
We present a novel machine learning based approach for detecting galaxy-scale gravitational lenses from interferometric data, specifically those taken with the International LOFAR Telescope (ILT), which is observing the northern radio sky at a frequency of 150 MHz, an angular resolution of 350 mas and a sensitivity of 90 uJy beam-1 (1 sigma). We develop and test several Convolutional Neural Networks to determine the probability and uncertainty of a given sample being classified as a lensed or non-lensed event. By training and testing on a simulated interferometric imaging data set that include…
Regular magnetic field structures can be derived from the Faraday rotation measures (RM) of polarized background sources observable at 1.4 GHz with the SKA. At lower frequencies ($<250$ MHz) polarimetry of radio sources with the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) will allow the investigation of extremely small RM, to detect and map weak regular fields in halos and outer parts of spiral galaxies, and in the interstellar and intergalactic medium. Very little is known yet about the number density of polarized sources at low frequencies. Observed distributions of polarized sources at 350 MHz and 1.4 GHz …
Various studies have laid claim to finding an alignment of the polarization vectors or radio jets of active galactic nuclei (AGN) over large distances, but these results have proven controversial and so far, there is no clear explanation for this observed alignment. To investigate this case further, we tested the hypothesis that the position angles of radio galaxies are randomly oriented in the sky by using data from the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS). A sample of 7,555 double-lobed radio galaxies was extracted from the list of 318,520 radio sources in the first data …
The four persistent radio sources in the northern sky with the highest flux density at metre wavelengths are Cassiopeia A, Cygnus A, Taurus A, and Virgo A; collectively they are called the A-team. Their flux densities at ultra-low frequencies (<100 MHz) can reach several thousands of janskys, and they often contaminate observations of the low-frequency sky by interfering with image processing. Furthermore, these sources are foreground objects for all-sky observations hampering the study of faint signals, such as the cosmological 21 cm line from the epoch of reionisation. We aim to produce robu…
Low-power radio sources dominate the radio sky. They tend to be small in size and core-dominated, but the origin of their properties and the evolution of their radio plasma are not well constrained. Interestingly, there is mounting evidence that low-power radio sources can significantly impact their surrounding gaseous medium and, therefore, may be more relevant for galaxy evolution than previously thought. In this paper, we present low radio frequency observations obtained with LOFAR at 147 MHz of the radio source hosted by NGC 3998. This is a rare example of a low-power source which is extre…
Low radio frequency surveys are important for testing unified models of radio-loud quasars and radio galaxies. Intrinsically similar sources that are randomly oriented on the sky will have different projected linear sizes. Measuring the projected linear sizes of these sources provides an indication of their orientation. Steep-spectrum isotropic radio emission allows for orientation-free sample selection at low radio frequencies. We use a new radio survey of the Boötes field at 150 MHz made with the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) to select a sample of radio sources. We identify 44 radio galaxies a…
Context. Radio halos are megaparsec-scale diffuse radio sources{ mostly} located at the centres of merging galaxy clusters. The common mechanism invoked to explain their origin is the re-acceleration of relativistic particles caused by large-scale turbulence. Aims. Current re-acceleration models predict that a significant number of halos at high redshift should be characterised by very steep spectra ($α<-1.5$) because of increasing inverse Compton energy losses. In this paper, we investigate the spectral index properties of a sample of nine clusters selected from the second Planck Sunyaev-Zel'…
The ultra low-frequency spectral properties of bright extended radio galaxies in the 3CRR catalogue
INAF–Istituto di Radioastronomia（意大利国家天体物理研究所射电天文研究所）；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna（博洛尼亚大学物理与天文学系）；Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire（赫特福德大学天体物理研究中心）；Hamburger Sternwarte, Universität Hamburg（汉堡大学汉堡天文台）；Leiden Observatory, Leiden University（莱顿大学莱顿天文台）
Studies of the most distant AGNs allow us to test our current understanding of the physics present in radio-jetted AGNs across a range of environments. The decrease in apparent luminosity with distance is the primary difficulty to overcome in the study of these distant AGNs, which requires highly sensitive instruments. Our goal is to employ new long wavelength radio data to better parametrise the broad-band SED of GB 1508+5714, a high-redshift (z=4.30) AGN. Its high redshift, high intrinsic luminosity, and classification as a blazar allow us to test emission models that consider the efficient …
Interstellar scattering is known to broaden distant objects spatially and temporally. The latter aspect is difficult to analyse, unless the signals carry their own time stamps. Pulsars are so kind to do us this favour. Typically the signature is a broadened image with little or no substructure and a similarly smooth exponential scattering tail in the temporal profile. The case of the pulsar B1508+55 is special: The profile shows additional components that are moving relative to the main pulse with time. We use low-frequency VLBI with LOFAR to test the hypothesis that these components are actua…
Through the use of a High Band Antenna system, the Low Frequency Array Two-Meter Sky Survey (LoTSS) is an attempt to complete a high-resolution survey of the northern celestial sky. To date, thousands of radio sources have been classified by LOFAR with most of them consisting of active galactic nuclei (AGN). The strong AGN emissions detected by LoTSS, it is thought, are powered by supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the center of galaxies. During an analysis of 1500 images of these AGNs, we identified 10 radio sources with radial spokes emitted from an unknown source. According to LOFAR, the r…
During the performance verification phase of the SRG/eROSITA telescope, the eROSITA Final Equatorial-Depth Survey (eFEDS) has been carried out. It covers a 140 deg$^2$ field located at 126$^\circ <$ R.A. $< 146^\circ$ and -3$^\circ <$ Dec. $< +6^\circ$ with a nominal exposure over the field of 2.2 ks. 542 candidate clusters were detected in this field, down to a flux limit $F_X \sim 10^{-14}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ in the 0.5-2 keV band. In order to understand radio-mode feedback in galaxy clusters, we study the radio emission of brightest cluster galaxies of eFEDS clusters, and we relate it t…
Nearby galaxies in the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey IV. A fundamental plane of the radio-SFR relation
Hamburger Sternwarte, University of Hamburg（汉堡天文台，汉堡大学）；ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy（ASTRON，荷兰射电天文研究所）；Ruhr University Bochum（鲁尔大学波鸿）；European Southern Observatory（欧洲南方天文台）；INAF-Istituto di Radioastronomia（意大利国家天体物理研究所射电天文部）；Astronomical Observatory of the Jagiellonian University（雅盖隆大学天文台）；National Centre for Nuclear Research（国家核研究中心）；Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, CNES, LAM（艾克斯-马赛大学，法国国家科学研究中心，法国国家空间研究中心，拉格朗日天文物理实验室）；Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)（马德里康普顿斯大学）；School of Astronomy, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM)（天文学学院，伊朗基础科学研究所）
INFN Section of Naples（意大利国家核物理研究所那不勒斯分部）；University of Naples "Federico II"（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学）；ESO（欧洲南方天文台）
We present a Deep-Learning (DL) pipeline developed for the detection and characterization of astronomical sources within simulated Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) data cubes. The pipeline is composed of six DL models: a Convolutional Autoencoder for source detection within the spatial domain of the integrated data cubes, a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) for denoising and peak detection within the frequency domain, and four Residual Neural Networks (ResNets) for source characterization. The combination of spatial and frequency information improves completeness while decreasi…
We release the AllWISE counterparts and Gaia matches to 106,573 and 17,665 X-ray sources detected in the ROSAT 2RXS and XMMSL2 surveys with |b|>15. These are the brightest X-ray sources in the sky, but their position uncertainties and the sparse multi-wavelength coverage until now rendered the identification of their counterparts a demanding task with uncertain results. New all-sky multi-wavelength surveys of sufficient depth, like AllWISE and Gaia, and a new Bayesian statistics based algorithm, NWAY, allow us, for the first time, to provide reliable counterpart associations. NWAY extends prev…
We present a model to predict the luminosity function for radio galaxies and their linear size distribution at any redshift. The model takes a black hole mass function and Eddington ratio distribution as input and tracks the evolution of radio sources, taking into account synchrotron, adiabatic and inverse Compton energy losses. We first test the model at z = 2 where plenty of radio data is available and show that the radio luminosity function (RLF) is consistent with observations. We are able to reproduce the break in luminosity function that separates locally the FRI and FRII radio sources. …
The prominent radio source Hercules A features complex structures in its radio lobes. Although it is one of the most comprehensively studied sources in the radio sky, the origin of the ring structures in the Hercules A radio lobes remains an open question. We present the first sub-arcsecond angular resolution images at low frequencies (<300 MHz) of Hercules A, made with the International LOFAR Telescope. With the addition of data from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, we mapped the structure of the lobes from 144 MHz to 7 GHz. We explore the origin of the rings within the lobes of Hercules …
Radio observations being insensitive to the dust-obscuration, have been exploited to unveil the population of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) residing in galaxies with large dust content. In this paper, we investigate the radio characteristics of 321 dust-obscured galaxies (DOGs; S$_{\rm 24 μm}$/S$_{\rm r band}$ $\geq$1000) by using mainly deep band-3 (250$-$550 MHz) observations from the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) and 1.5 GHz Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA) observations. We find that, for our sample of DOGs, deep (median noise-rms $=$ 30 $μ$Jy beam$^{-1}$) 400 MHz band-3 uGM…
Radio-dust connection in quasars driven by powerful ionised outflows
European Southern Observatory (ESO)（欧洲南方天文台）；Newcastle University（纽卡斯尔大学）；Durham University（杜伦大学）；Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik（马克斯·普朗克地外物理研究所）；University of Oxford（牛津大学）；Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)（毫米波射电天文研究所）
