Spectra of G4Jy radio-galaxies

Project Description:

Radio telescopes, such as MeerKAT, give us an unparalleled view of the Universe, thanks to being able to detect star formation (i.e. the growth of galaxies), black-hole accretion (i.e. the growth of supermassive black-holes), and diffuse radio-emission (e.g. how radio-jets interact with the surrounding medium). It is also unaffected by dust along the line-of-sight, allowing us to build the most-complete picture of physical processes in these intriguing objects. Furthermore, by observing galaxies at multiple radio-frequencies, we can construct spectral-index maps and infer the age of the radio emission by measuring the degree of ‘spectral curvature’ in the radio part of the spectrum (see the attached pdf). However, we also need to know how far away the galaxies are in order to break the degeneracy between different spectral-age models within a specific observing band. For this we have optical spectroscopy from the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), where spectral features in the optical part of the electromagnetic spectrum (e.g. Garcia-Perez et al., 2024) allow us to calculate the redshift, z (i.e. a measure of distance), of these radio galaxies for the first time. These redshifts are also crucial for calculating any intrinsic property of the radio galaxy, such as its radio power (typically in units of W Hz-1) and its linear size (in units of kiloparsec, kpc).

Research Area:

Astrophysics

Project Level:

Masters

This Project Is Offered At The Following Node(s):

(UCT)

Special Requirements:

The student is expected to demonstrate good programming skills in Python, and excellent organisation aided by diligent book-keeping skills. Their ability to problem-solve when working with new software (such as TOPCAT) is also highly desirable. If interested in this project, the student should contact both supervisors as soon as possible.