Thesis

Objective criteria for the selection of the most distant radio galaxies

• Call:

  IDPASC Portugal - PHD Programme 2017

• Academic Year:

  2017 / 2018

• Domain:

  Astrophysics

• Supervisor:

  José Afonso

• Co-Supervisor:

  Polychronis Papaderos

• Institution:

  Faculdade de Ciências - Universidade de Lisboa

• Host Institution:

  Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences

• Abstract:

  Studies of the high redshift Universe have relied on a number of methods to identify increasingly distant and, consequently, younger galaxies. Radio selection has been reborn as one of the most promising methods, as powerful radio AGN can currently be detected at radio frequencies at essentially any redshift. Using the next generation of deep radio surveys, these searches are now being pushed to new sensitivity levels, to find radio AGN at the highest distances and at the earliest formation stages, presumably well within the Epoch of Reionization. Using multiwavelength data (x-rays, optical, infrared and millimetre, besides the radio itself), the faint radio population has started to be characterized, contributing not only to a better understanding of the radio sky, but, even more interestingly, selecting elusive, more extreme sources that can only be understood with the upcoming full capabilities of the Atacama Large Millimetre Array. These studies are exciting, but can only currently be performed over very small areas. Extending such studies to virtually the whole sky is a prime objective of the next generation of radio surveys, and this project aims to play a pivotal role in such expansion. The host institution for this project is involved (with co-Is and co-PIs) in two of the most ambitious projects in the pre-Square Kilometre Array era, surveys that will map the entire sky at 1.4GHz at microJansky levels. The Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU), to be performed with the Australia Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, will cover the sky at declinations below 30deg, while the Westerbork Observations of the Deep APERTIF Northern-Sky (WODAN) will cover the northern regions. Both surveys should start producing data from 2017. Together, the EMU and WODAN surveys will produce a unique dataset that, together with other multiwavelength data being obtained or soon to be obtained, will be able to find the most extreme and unique radio galaxies, including the first-generation of powerful AGN in the Universe, in the Epoch of Reionization. This project proposes to (a) establish a set of objective criteria for the selection of very high redshift radio galaxies; (b) find and analyse candidates for very high redshift radio galaxies, including the preparation of follow-up observations of particularly interesting candidates with ALMA; (c) play an active role in the optimization of the next generation of ultra-deep whole-sky radio surveys, the EMU and WODAN projects, in order to explore more efficiently the highest redshift Universe.