Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
1998-09-06
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
LaTeX, 12 pages. Accepted by MNRAS. For Fig. 8 and more info, see http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~snellen
Scientific paper
10.1046/j.1365-8711.1998.02100.x
A sample of 47 faint Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum (GPS) radio sources selected from the Westerbork Northern Sky Survey (WENSS, Rengelink et al. 1997), has been imaged in the optical and near infrared, resulting in an identification fraction of 87%. The R-I and R-K colours of the faint optical counterparts are as expected for passively evolving elliptical galaxies, assuming that they follow the R band Hubble diagram as determined for radio-bright GPS galaxies. We have found evidence that the radio spectral properties of the GPS quasars are different from those of GPS galaxies: The observed distribution of radio spectral peak frequencies for GPS sources optically identified with bright stellar objects (presumably quasars) is shifted compared with GPS sources identified with faint or extended optical objects (presumably galaxies), in the sense that a GPS quasar is likely to have a higher peak frequency than a GPS galaxy. This means that the true peak frequency distribution is different for the GPS galaxies and quasars, because the sample selection effects are independent of optical identification. The correlation between peak frequency and redshift as has been suggested for bright sources has not been found in this sample; no correlation exists between R magnitude (and therefore redshift) and peak frequency for the GPS galaxies. We therefore believe that the claimed correlation is actually caused by the dependence of the peak frequency on optical host, because the GPS galaxies are in general at lower redshifts than the quasars. The difference in the peak frequency distributions of the GPS galaxies and quasars is further evidence against the hypothesis that they form a single class of object.
Bremer Malcolm N.
de Bruyn Ger A.
Fournon Perez I.
McMahon Richard G.
Miley George K.
No associations
LandOfFree
Optical and near-infrared imaging of faint Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum sources does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Optical and near-infrared imaging of faint Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum sources, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Optical and near-infrared imaging of faint Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum sources will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-333928