High-resolution radio imaging of TGSSJ1530+1049, a radio galaxy in a dense environment at z=4

TL;DR

This study presents high-resolution radio imaging of the high-redshift galaxy TGSSJ1530+1049, revealing complex jet structures and their alignment with JWST observations, providing insights into early galaxy formation in dense environments.

Contribution

First high-resolution radio imaging of TGSSJ1530+1049 at mas scales, revealing detailed jet morphology and its relation to ionized gas at z=4.

Findings

Revealed complex radio structure with lobes and hot spots.

Radio morphology closely aligned with JWST ionized gas observations.

Size (~5.5 kpc) and power classify it as a medium-sized symmetric object.

Abstract

High-redshift radio galaxies can provide insights into the structure formation and galaxy evolution at earlier cosmological epochs. TGSSJ1530+1049 was selected as a candidate high-redshift radio galaxy. Subsequent observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) presented in a companion paper (Saxena et al., 2026) have shown that it is located at a redshift z=4.0. The JWST data furthermore showed that the radio source is part of one of the densest structures of galaxies and ionized gas known at these redshifts. The complex system qualitatively resembles a massive (cluster) galaxy forming early through a rapid succession of mergers. TGSSJ1530+1049 is an unresolved source down to ~0.6" scale in multiple radio surveys. To reveal its high-resolution radio structure and allow for a detailed comparison with JWST observations, we studied its morphology at various angular scales with different radio interferometric instruments. We observed TGSSJ1530+1049 at milliarcsecond (mas) scale angular resolution with the European VLBI Network (EVN), and at ~100-mas scale resolution with the enhanced Multi-Element Remotely Linked Interferometer Network (e-MERLIN). We recovered a complex north--south oriented structure with steep-spectrum radio-emitting features, which are associated with lobes and hot spots of a jetted active galactic nucleus. The centre of the radio galaxy proved to be too faint at cm wavelengths to be unambiguously detected in our observations. Nevertheless, the linear size (~5.5 kpc) and the radio power place it among the so-called medium-sized symmetric objects, a smaller and/or confined version of larger radio galaxies. Comparison between the radio morphology and that of the ionized gas observed by JWST shows that the two are closely aligned. However, the optical emission line gas extends out to ~25 kpc, which is well beyond the detected radio structures. (Abridged)