Science with an ngVLA: Young Radio AGN in the ngVLA Era

TL;DR

The paper discusses how the ngVLA telescope will revolutionize our understanding of young radio AGN, their triggering mechanisms, and their role in galaxy evolution through high-resolution, broad-frequency observations.

Contribution

It highlights the potential of ngVLA's sensitivity and resolution to study the life cycles of radio AGN and their impact on galaxies, a significant advancement over current capabilities.

Findings

ngVLA will enable detailed mapping of young radio AGN on sub-kiloparsec scales

Broad frequency coverage allows accurate age estimation of radio sources up to 40 Myr

Combining ngVLA with other instruments will improve spectral energy distribution characterization

Abstract

Most massive galaxies are now thought to go through an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) phase one or more times. Yet, the cause of triggering and the variations in the intrinsic and observed properties of AGN population are still poorly understood. Young, compact radio sources associated with accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs) represent an important phase in the life cycles of jetted AGN for understanding AGN triggering and duty cycles. The superb sensitivity and resolution of the ngVLA, coupled with its broad frequency coverage, will provide exciting new insights into our understanding of the life cycles of radio AGN and their impact on galaxy evolution. The high spatial resolution of the ngVLA will enable resolved mapping of young radio AGN on sub-kiloparsec scales over a wide range of redshifts. With broad continuum coverage from 1 to 116 GHz, the ngVLA will excel at estimating ages of sources as old as $30-40$ Myr at $z \sim 1$. In combination with lower-frequency ($\nu < 1$ GHz) instruments such as ngLOBO and the Square Kilometer Array, the ngVLA will robustly characterize the spectral energy distributions of young radio AGN.