Joint Astrophysical Colloquium
Radio AGN with the LOFAR sky surveys
Martin Hardcastle (University of Hertfordshire)
Thursday 22/10/2026 @ 14:30, Sala Antonio Sollima (IV piano Battiferro)
AGN are thought to play a key role in the formation and evolution of galaxies as well as being the visible manifestation of the growth of central supermassive black holes, but locating them observationally in infrared, optical or X-ray wavelengths suffers from inevitable biases towards the most strongly accreting systems. Selecting AGN in the radio presents an entirely distinct set of challenges, particularly if one wishes to find the rare powerful systems that have a profound effect on their environment. I will discuss our work on selecting very large samples of AGN from the LOFAR wide-area sky survey LoTSS and the insights into AGN physics and environmental impact that we can derive from these observations.