Hosts and environments of radio-active AGN

Abstract

Investigations of the population of radio-active AGN up to z=3.5 not only show that these sources are hosted by galaxies of very large, M*>1010.5 Msun, stellar masses, but also that at all redshifts they reside in very massive dark matter halos, comparable to those associated with groups-to-clusters of galaxies. This result is found both via clustering studies and by directly pinpointing such sources to the cosmological structures they belong to. We also show how intense star-forming activity is encountered in the overwhelming majority of z>1 (massive) galaxies hosts of radio-active AGN, and how this activity is only halted by nuclear feedbacks in the relatively local universe. What emerges from our work is a scenario whereby physical processes at sub-pc/pc (e.g. AGN emission) and kpc scales strongly influence the large-scale structure behavior of the AGN and its host.