We present optical and near-infrared imaging of the field of the z=7.0842 quasar ULAS J112001.48+064124.3 taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. We use these data to search for galaxies that may be physically associated with the quasar, using the Lym
an break technique, and find three such objects, although the detection of one in Spitzer Space Telescope imaging strongly suggests it lies at z~2. This is consistent with the field luminosity function and indicates that there is no excess of >L* galaxies within 1 Mpc of the quasar. A detection of the quasar shortward of the Ly-alpha line is consistent with the previously observed evolution of the intergalactic medium at z>5.5.
We use the optical--infrared imaging in the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey field, in combination with the new deep radio map of Arumugam et al., to calculate the distribution of radio luminosities among galaxies as a function of stellar mass in two redshif
t bins across the interval 0.4<z<1.2. This is done with the use of a new Bayesian method to classify stars and galaxies in surveys with multi-band photometry, and to derive photometric redshifts and stellar masses for those galaxies. We compare the distribution to that observed locally and find agreement if we consider only objects believed to be weak-lined radio-loud galaxies. Since the local distribution is believed to be the result of an energy balance between radiative cooling of the gaseous halo and mechanical AGN heating, we infer that this balance was also present as long ago as z~1. This supports the existence of a direct link between the presence of a low-luminosity (hot-mode) radio-loud active galactic nucleus and the absence of ongoing star formation.
We present spectroscopic and eleven-band photometric redshifts for galaxies in the 100-uJy Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field radio source sample. We find good agreement between our redshift distribution and that predicted by the SKA Simulated Skies projec
t. We find no correlation between K-band magnitude and radio flux, but show that sources with 1.4-GHz flux densities below ~1mJy are fainter in the near-infrared than brighter radio sources at the same redshift, and we discuss the implications of this result for spectroscopically-incomplete samples where the K-z relation has been used to estimate redshifts. We use the infrared--radio correlation to separate our sample into radio-loud and radio-quiet objects and show that only radio-loud hosts have spectral energy distributions consistent with predominantly old stellar populations, although the fraction of objects displaying such properties is a decreasing function of radio luminosity. We calculate the 1.4-GHz radio luminosity function (RLF) in redshift bins to z=4 and find that the space density of radio sources increases with lookback time to z~2, with a more rapid increase for more powerful sources. We demonstrate that radio-loud and radio-quiet sources of the same radio luminosity evolve very differently. Radio-quiet sources display strong evolution to z~2 while radio-loud AGNs below the break in the radio luminosity function evolve more modestly and show hints of a decline in their space density at z>1, with this decline occurring later for lower-luminosity objects. If the radio luminosities of these sources are a function of their black hole spins then slowly-rotating black holes must have a plentiful fuel supply for longer, perhaps because they have yet to encounter the major merger that will spin them up and use the remaining gas in a major burst of star formation.
In this letter we report the discovery of a z=4.88 radio galaxy discovered with a new technique which does not rely on pre-selection of a sample based on radio properties such as steep-spectral index or small angular size. This radio galaxy was disco
vered in the Elais-N2 field and has a spectral index of alpha = 0.75, i.e. not ultra-steep spectrum. It also has a luminosity consistent with being drawn from the break of the radio luminosity function and can therefore be considered as a typical radio galaxy. Using the Spitzer-SWIRE data over this field we find that the host galaxy is consistent with being similarly massive to the lower redshift powerful radio galaxies (~1-3L*). We note however, that at z=4.88 the H-alpha line is redshifted into the IRAC 3.6micron filter and some of the flux in this band may be due to this rather than stellar continuum emission. The discovery of such a distant radio source from our initial spectroscopic observations demonstrate the promise of our survey for finding the most distant radio sources.
