Letter to the Editor

The FIR/Radio correlation of high redshift galaxies in the region of the HDF-N

Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe, Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, The Netherlands

Corresponding author: garrett@jive.nl

Received: 12 September 2001
Accepted: 31 January 2002

Abstract

The correlation between the far-infrared (FIR) and radio emission is well established for nearby star forming galaxies. Many applications, in particular the radio-to-submm spectral index redshift indicator, tacitly assume that the relation holds well beyond our local neighbourhood, to systems located at cosmological distances. In order to test this assumption I have constructed a sample of 20 HDF-N galaxies, all with measured spectroscopic redshifts, and all detected by both ISO and the WSRT at 15 micron and 1.4 GHz respectively. The galaxies span a wide range of redshift with a median value of . The ISO 15 micron data were k-corrected and extrapolated to the FIR (60 and 100 micron) by assuming a starburst (M 82) spectral energy distribution (SED) for the entire sample. An initial analysis of the data suggests that the correlation between the FIR and the radio emission continues to apply at high redshift with no obvious indication that it fails to apply beyond . The sample is “contaminated” by at least 1 distant (), radio-loud AGN, VLA J123642+621331. This source has recently been detected by the first deep field VLBI observations of the HDF-N and is clearly identified as an outlier in the FIR/radio correlation.