Infrared-radio correlation

There is a close relationship between the amount of radio light and the amount of far-infrared light that galaxies emit. This is the so-called infrared-radio correlation.

In our 2017 publication, we found that this correlation has seemingly changed slightly over the history of the Universe.

This is important to know because it will change our measurements of the amount of star formation occurring in distant galaxies – which is an important parameter in galaxy evolution studies.

I explain this work for a general audience (no astronomy knowledge needed!) in this short video:

We made these finding using infrared data from the Herschel Space Observatory and radio data from the VLA-COSMOS 3GHz Large Project.

The VLA-COSMOS 3GHz Large Project is a radio continuum survey of the COSMOS field. It was led by our research group at the University of Zagreb, led by Prof Vernesa Smolcic. It is a 400 hour survey of the COSMOS field using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) telescope in New Mexico, USA.

3GHz_VLA_overlay_Smolcic
The VLA telescope (foreground; courtesy of NRAO/AUI) and a 3GHz image of the sky from the VLA-COSMOS 3GHz Large Project. Image composition: Vernesa Smolčić.

This was some of the most sensitive, high resolution and wide-field radio data available at the time. By combining it with the plethora of other high-quality multiwavelength data available in the COSMOS field, it provides a powerful resource with which to study galaxy evolution.

In June 2017 the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal published a special edition dedicated to the first suite of publications from our survey. You can read the full press release and watch some short videos about our work here.

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