Jacinta Delhaize (University of Zagreb)

Jacinta Delhaize colloquium: VLA-COSMOS -- A new radio continuum survey for advancing galaxy evolution studies

Abstract

I will present the first suite of results, published in a recent special edition of Astronomy & Astrophysics, from the VLA-COSMOS 3GHz Large Project. This is a 400 hour radio continuum survey of the two-square-degree COSMOS field using the recently upgraded Very Large Array telescope. With nearly 11,000 radio sources detected, it is the most sensitive radio continuum survey currently available over a cosmologically-significant sky area. It also acts as one of the pathfinders for the upcoming ASKAP EMU survey, and for other large-scale continuum surveys with next-generation radio telescopes such as the SKA.

In combination with the plethora of superb multiwavelength data available in the COSMOS field, this is in an excellent resource for studies of galaxy evolution out to z~6. I will summarise some of the first key results. This includes a sophisticated method for decomposing radio source populations into star-forming galaxies and AGN, examining the redshift-dependent behaviour of the infrared-radio correlation of galaxies, and using the radio continuum as a dust-unbiased star formation rate tracer.