Deep VLBI imaging of faint radio sources in the NOAO Bootes field
Oct, 200436 pages
Published in:
- Astrophys.J. 619 (2005) 105-115
e-Print:
- astro-ph/0410176 [astro-ph]
DOI:
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Abstract: (arXiv)
We have conducted a deep, very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observation at 1.4 GHz of an area of sky located within the NOAO Bootes field, using the NRAO VLBA and 100-m Green Bank Telescope. Applying wide-field VLBI techniques, a total of 61 sources, selected from a WSRT image, were surveyed simultaneously with a range of different sensitivities and resolutions. The inner 0-2', of the field reached an unprecedented 1-sigma rms noise level ~ 9 uJy/beam and yielded 2 detections. A further 7 sources were detected in the rest of the field. All of the sources have a brightness temperature in excess of 10^5 K: suggesting they are AGN. Optical identifications are available for 8 of the 9 VLBI detections - only VLBI J142906.6095 remains unidentified (I > 25.6m). Two sources are not detected in K-band (K > 18.5m) suggesting that some significant fraction of these compact radio sources may be located at z > 1. The VLBI detection rate for sub-mJy radio sources is 8^{+4}_{-5} %. The VLBI detection rate for mJy sources is higher, 29^{+11}_{-12}%. This trend is expected if the radio emission associated with fainter sub-mJy and microJy sources increasingly arises from extended regions of star formation. The 9 VLBI detections pin-point the precise location of AGN or candidate AGN, and their VLBI positions can help to anchor the NOAO Bootes field to the ICRF. The simultaneous detection of several sub-mJy and mJy radio sources, in a single observation, suggest that their combined response may be used to self-calibrate wide-field VLBI data. Future VLBI observations of faint sub-mJy and microJy radio sources can take full advantage of this full-beam calibration technique.- galaxies: active
- galaxies: starburst
- radio continuum: galaxies
- surveys
- techniques: interferometric
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