Are the hosts of VLBI selected radio-AGN different to those of radio-loud AGN?

TL;DR

This study uses VLBI observations to show that nearly half of high-mass, high-luminosity radio-AGN have VLBI counterparts, indicating they are representative of the broader radio-loud AGN population without specific host biases.

Contribution

It provides new VLBI observational evidence that VLBI-detected radio-AGN are representative of the general radio-loud AGN population, with no host galaxy biases.

Findings

Approximately 49% of high-mass, high-luminosity radio-AGN have VLBI counterparts.

VLBI-detected radio-AGN show no bias towards specific host galaxy properties.

VLBI-detected radio-AGN are representative of the overall radio-loud AGN population.

Abstract

Recent studies have found that radio-AGN selected by radio-loudness show little difference in terms of their host galaxy properties when compared to non-AGN galaxies of similar stellar mass and redshift. Using new 1.4~GHz VLBI observations of the COSMOS field we find that approximately 49$\pm8$\% of high-mass (M $>$ 10$^{10.5}$ M$_{\odot}$), high luminosity (L$_{1.4}$ $>$ 10$^{24}$ W~Hz$^{-1}$) radio-AGN possess a VLBI detected counterpart. These objects show no discernible bias towards specific stellar masses, redshifts or host properties other than what is shown by the radio-AGN population in general. Radio-AGN that are detected in VLBI observations are not special, but form a representative sample of the radio-loud AGN population.