The PHOENIX survey: the pairing fraction of faint radio sources
Abstract
The significance of tidal interactions in the evolution of the faint radio population (sub-mJy) is studied using a deep and homogeneous radio survey (1.4GHz), covering an area of 3.14deg2 and complete to a flux density of 0.4mJy. Optical photometric and spectroscopic data are also available for this sample. A statistical approach is employed to identify candidate physical associations between radio sources and optically selected `field' galaxies. We find an excess of close pairs around optically identified faint radio sources, albeit at a low significance level, implying that the pairing fraction of the sub-mJy radio sources is similar to that of `field' galaxies (at the same magnitude limit) but higher than that of local galaxies.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- November 1999
- DOI:
- 10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.03141.x
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/9910140
- Bibcode:
- 1999MNRAS.310L..15G
- Keywords:
-
- GALAXIES: ACTIVE;
- GALAXIES: STARBURST;
- COSMOLOGY: OBSERVATIONS;
- RADIO CONTINUUM: GALAXIES;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters