An ngVLA Wide Area AGN Survey

Abstract

The next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) will have unprecedented sensitivities and mapping speeds at 1.2-8 GHz. We discuss how the active galactic nuclei (AGN) community can benefit from a wide-area, medium depth ngVLA survey. We propose a 10 deg<SUP>2</SUP> survey in the Stripe 82 field using the 8 GHz band with an rms depth of 1 μJy beam<SUP>-1</SUP>. We will detect ∼130,000 galaxies, including radio-quiet AGN out to z ∼ 7. We can measure the luminosity and space density evolution of radio-quiet and radio-loud AGN. We can also measure AGN evolution through clustering of both populations using cross-correlation functions. A wide area ngVLA survey will benefit from existing multiwavelength AGN populations, particularly in the Stripe 82 field, as well as new information from next-generation optical and infrared survey instruments such as LSST and WFIRST.