The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey Deep Fields Data Release 1: V. Survey description, source classifications and host galaxy properties

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive classification and analysis of 80,000 radio sources from the LoTSS Deep Fields, including galaxy properties, AGN identification, and population statistics, using multi-wavelength data and spectral energy distribution fitting.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed classification scheme for radio sources, combining multi-wavelength SED fitting with radio emission analysis, and compares results with existing radio sky simulations.

Findings

Over 95% of sources reliably classified

Star-forming galaxies dominate below 1 mJy flux density

Radio-quiet AGN account for about 10% of sources

Abstract

Source classifications, stellar masses and star formation rates are presented for 80,000 radio sources from the first data release of the Low Frequency Array Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) Deep Fields, which represents the widest deep radio survey ever undertaken. Using deep multi-wavelength data spanning from the ultraviolet to the far-infrared, spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting is carried out for all of the LoTSS-Deep host galaxies using four different SED codes, two of which include modelling of the contributions from an active galactic nucleus (AGN). Comparing the results of the four codes, galaxies that host a radiative AGN are identified, and an optimised consensus estimate of the stellar mass and star-formation rate for each galaxy is derived. Those galaxies with an excess of radio emission over that expected from star formation are then identified, and the LoTSS-Deep sources are divided into four classes: star-forming galaxies, radio-quiet AGN, and radio-loud high-excitation and low-excitation AGN. Ninety-five per cent of the sources can be reliably classified, of which more than two-thirds are star-forming galaxies, ranging from normal galaxies in the nearby Universe to highly-starbursting systems at z>4. Star-forming galaxies become the dominant population below 150-MHz flux densities of about 1 mJy, accounting for 90 per cent of sources at a 150-MHz flux density of 100 microJy. Radio-quiet AGN comprise around 10 per cent of the overall population. Results are compared against the predictions of the SKADS and T-RECS radio sky simulations, and improvements to the simulations are suggested.