High Resolution Radio Imaging of Powerful, Distant, Heavily Obscured Active Galaxies
Abstract
High resolution radio imaging provides a powerful probe of the dense, dusty interiors of interacting, merging and active galaxies. Only at radio wavelengths is there a combination of sub-kiloparsec resolution, source transparency and sensitivity that can delineate complex structures and unveil spatial relationships between energetic phenomena such as relativistic jets and shocks. We discuss recent results from JVLA and VLBA observations of a population of highly obscured, extremely luminous, cosmologically distant active galaxies, thought to be in a transitional state between intense nuclear star formation and accretion-powered activity. The radio morphologies of these objects across a range of angular scales will be reviewed, and interpreted in terms of relativistic jets and their likely interactions with a dense, dusty, inhomogeneous medium. We assess the potential of more comprehensive radio and ALMA imaging for testing current models of the birth of AGN radio jets and their role in the disruption and dissipation of a star forming circumnuclear medium.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #225
- Pub Date:
- January 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015AAS...22512008L