Morphology and surface brightness evolution of z∼1.1 radio galaxies

We use K '-band (2.1-μm) imaging to investigate the angular size and morphology of 10 6C radio galaxies, at redshifts 1≤ z ≤1.4. Two radio galaxies appear to be undergoing mergers, another contains, within a single envelope, two intensity peaks aligned with the radio jets, while the other seven appear consistent with being normal ellipticals in the K band.
Intrinsic half-light radii are estimated from the areas of each radio galaxy image above a series of thresholds. The 6C galaxy radii are found to be significantly smaller than those of the more radio-luminous 3CR galaxies at similar redshifts. This would indicate that the higher mean K -band luminosity of the 3CR galaxies reflects a difference in the size of the host galaxies, and not solely a difference in the power of the active nuclei.
The size–luminosity relation of the z ∼1.1 6C galaxies indicates a 1.0–1.6 mag enhancement of their rest frame R -band surface brightness relative to either local ellipticals of the same size or FRII radio galaxies at z <0.2. The 3CR galaxies at z ∼1.1 show a comparable enhancement in surface brightness. The mean radius of the 6C galaxies suggests that they evolve into ellipticals of L ∼ L * luminosity, and is consistent with their low-redshift counterparts being relatively small FRII galaxies ∼25 times lower in radio luminosity, or small FRI galaxies ∼1000 times lower in radio luminosity. Hence the 6C radio galaxies appear to undergo as much optical and radio evolution as the 3CR galaxies.     

HST and UKIRT imaging observations of z∼ 1 6C radio galaxies – II. Galaxy morphologies and the alignment effect

Powerful radio galaxies often display enhanced optical/ultraviolet emission regions, elongated and aligned with the radio jet axis. The aim of this series of papers is to investigate separately the effects of radio power and redshift on the alignment effect, together with other radio galaxy properties. In this second paper, we present a deeper analysis of the morphological properties of these systems, including both the host galaxies and their surrounding aligned emission.
The host galaxies of our 6C subsample are well described as de Vaucouleurs ellipticals, with typical scale sizes of  ∼10 kpc  . This is comparable to the host galaxies of low- z radio sources of similar powers, and also the more powerful 3CR sources at the same redshift. The contribution of nuclear point source emission is also comparable, regardless of radio power.
The 6C alignment effect is remarkably similar to that seen around more powerful 3CR sources at the same redshift in terms of extent and degree of alignment with the radio source axis, although it is generally less luminous. The bright, knotty features observed in the case of the z ∼ 1 3CR sources are far less frequent in our 6C subsample; neither do we observe such strong evidence for evolution in the strength of the alignment effect with radio source size/age. However, we do find a very strong link between the most extreme alignment effects and emission-line region properties indicative of shocks, regardless of source size/age or power. In general, the 6C alignment effect is still considerably stronger than that seen around lower redshift galaxies of similar radio powers. Cosmic epoch is clearly just as important a factor as radio power: although aligned emission is observed on smaller scales at lower redshifts, the processes which produce the most extreme features simply no longer occur, suggesting considerable evolution in the properties of the extended haloes surrounding the radio source.     

Jet–gas interactions in z∼ 2.5 radio galaxies: evolution of the ultraviolet line and continuum emission with radio morphology

We present an investigation into the nature of the jet–gas interactions in a sample of 10 radio galaxies at  2.3 < z < 2.9  using deep spectroscopy of the ultraviolet (UV) line and continuum emission obtained at Keck II and the Very Large Telescope. Kinematically perturbed gas, which we have shown to be within the radio structure in previous publications, is always blueshifted with respect to the kinematically quiescent gas, is usually spatially extended, and is usually detected on both sides of the nucleus. In the three objects from this sample for which we are able to measure line ratios for both the perturbed and quiescent gases, we suggest that the former has a lower ionization state than the latter.
We propose that the perturbed gas is part of a jet-induced outflow, with dust obscuring the outflowing gas that lies on the far side of the object. The spatial extent of the blueshifted perturbed gas, typically ∼35 kpc, implies that the dust is spatially extended at least on similar spatial scales.
We also find interesting interrelationships between UV line, UV continuum and radio continuum properties of this sample.     

The ultraviolet excess in nearby powerful radio galaxies: evidence for a young stellar component

We present William Herschel Telescope spectropolarimetry observations of a complete RA-limited sample of nine low-redshift  (0.05< z <0.2)  3CR radio sources in order to investigate the nature of the ultraviolet (UV) excess in nearby powerful radio galaxies. Of the nine galaxies studied in detail from this sample, we find that four show a measurable UV excess following nebular continuum subtraction, but none of the sources shows significant polarization in the UV. One of the radio galaxies with a UV excess – 3C 184.1 – shows evidence for broad permitted lines and hence direct active galactic nucleus (AGN) light. In the remaining three galaxies we argue that the most likely contributor to the UV excess is a young stellar component. For these three galaxies we find that the best-fitting model for the optical/UV continuum consists of a combination of an old stellar population  (10–15 Gyr  old elliptical galaxy) plus a reddened young stellar population  (0.05–2 Gyr)  . The reddened young stellar component typically accounts for half of the total flux at 4780 Å, following nebular continuum subtraction, and   E ( B - V )  values of between 0.2 and 0.7 mag are required. However, for the majority of sources in our sample (six out of nine), continuum modelling provides no evidence for a significant young stellar component in the nuclear regions of the host galaxies. Our results are discussed in the context of far-infrared evidence for star formation activity.     

The evolution of 3CR radio galaxies from z1

We present the results of a comprehensive re-analysis of the images of a virtually complete sample of 28 powerful 3CR radio galaxies with redshifts 0.6< z <1.8 from the Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) archive. Using a two-dimensional modelling technique we have derived scalelengths and absolute magnitudes for a total of 16 3CR galaxies with a median redshift of z =0.8. Our results confirm the basic conclusions of Best, Longair & Röttgering in that we also find z =1 3CR galaxies to be massive, well-evolved ellipticals, the infrared emission of which is dominated by starlight. However, we in fact find that the scalelength distribution of 3CR galaxies at z ≃1 is completely indistinguishable from that derived for their low-redshift counterparts from our own recently completed HST study of active galactic nuclei hosts at z ≃0.2. There is thus no evidence that 3CR radio galaxies at z ≃1 are dynamically different from 3CR galaxies at low redshift. Moreover, for a 10-object subsample we have determined the galaxy parameters with sufficient accuracy to demonstrate, for the first time, that the z ≃1 3CR galaxies follow a Kormendy relation that is indistinguishable from that displayed by low-redshift ellipticals if one allows for purely passive evolution. The implied rather modest level of passive evolution since z ≃1 is consistent with that predicted from spectrophotometric models provided one assumes a high formation redshift ( z ≥4) within a low-density universe. We conclude that there is no convincing evidence for significant dynamical evolution among 3CR galaxies in the redshift interval 0< z <1, and that simple passive evolution remains an acceptable interpretation of the K – z relation for powerful radio galaxies.     

Chemo-spectrophotometric evolution of spiral galaxies – II. Main properties of present-day disc galaxies

We study the chemical and spectrophotometric evolution of galactic discs with detailed models calibrated on the Milky Way and using simple scaling relations, based on currently popular semi-analytic models of galaxy formation. We compare our results with a large body of observational data on present-day galactic discs, including disc sizes and central surface brightness, Tully–Fisher relations in various wavelength bands, colour–colour and colour–magnitude relations, gas fractions versus magnitudes and colours and abundances versus local and integrated properties, as well as spectra for different galactic rotational velocities. Despite the extremely simple nature of our models, we find satisfactory agreement with all those observables, provided that the time-scale for star formation in low-mass discs is longer than for more massive ones. This assumption is apparently in contradiction with the standard picture of hierarchical cosmology. We find, however, that it is extremely successful in reproducing major features of present-day discs, like the change in the slope of the Tully–Fisher relation with wavelength, the fact that more massive galaxies are on average 'redder' than low-mass ones (a generic problem of standard hierarchical models) and the metallicity–luminosity relation for spirals. It is concluded that, on a purely empirical basis, this new picture is at least as successful as the standard one. Observations at high redshifts could help to distinguish between the two possibilities.     

Chemo-spectrophotometric evolution of spiral galaxies – IV. Star formation efficiency and effective ages of spirals

We study the star formation history of normal spirals by using a large and homogeneous data sample of local galaxies. For our analysis we utilize detailed models of chemical and spectrophotometric galactic evolution, calibrated on the Milky Way disc. We find that star formation efficiency is independent of galactic mass, while massive discs have, on average, lower gas fractions and are redder than their low-mass counterparts; put together, these findings convincingly suggest that massive spirals are older than low-mass ones. We evaluate the effective ages of the galaxies of our sample and we find that massive spirals must be several Gyr older than low-mass ones. We also show that these galaxies (having rotational velocities in the 80–400 km s⁻¹ range) cannot have suffered extensive mass losses, i.e. they cannot have lost during their lifetime an amount of mass much larger than their current content of gas+stars.