Recent research has lead to the possible discovery of a new class of gamma-ray emitting ac- tive galactic nuclei (AGN). These objects – the very radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLSy1s)– demonstrate observational features suggesting that they are similar to blazars. One of the key characteristics of blazars is the presence of high-amplitude optical microvariability. While this phenomenon has been investigated in individual objects, no study of the intra-night variability of radio-loud NLSy1s as a class has previously been available. This dissertation presents a sys- tematic search for optical variability in a sample of 33 radio-loud NLSy1s. It was found that 26 objects demonstrated microvariations. However, only 9 objects did so with duty cycles comparable to blazars, and only 7 of these 9 objects — J0706+3901, J0849+5108, J0948+0022, J1246+0238, PKS 1502+036, J1644+2619, and IRAS 20181-2244 — demonstrated microvariability at compa- rable amplitudes. Two objects stand out as exceptional sources. J0849+5108 was found to have a duty cycle of ~90% and was observed to undergo an enormous 4-magnitude optical flare in a two-month time span. The object has not been reported to have undergone such an event since 1975. The second object, J0948+0022, is the class prototype. High cadence data indicates that J0948+0022 has a remarkably rapid doubling time scale of ~40 minutes, and it was seen to vary by over 0.9 magnitudes within an individual night. Attempts to correlate microvariability to radio loudness, gamma-ray loudness, and other parameters were largely unsuccessful. However, it was found that only radio-loud NLSy1s that were detected at gamma-ray energies demonstrated microvariability at blazar-like duty cycles. Additionally, an analysis of the frequency of microvariations at various amplitudes suggests that the sample of radio-loud NLSy1s presented in this study share a parent population identical to low energy peaked BL Lac-type (LBL) blazars. This is in agreement with the work of astronomers such as Abdo et al. 2009, who have created spectral energy distributions for a few radio-loud NLSy1s and found them to resemble those of LBLs. Blazar-like variability was found in multiple objects with radio loudnesses of log(R) < 2, suggesting that even moderately radio-loud NLSy1s may be blazar-like objects.

Les études détaillées d'amas de galaxies confirmés à grands redshifts sont peu nombreuses. L’objectif de cette Thèse est d’établir le premier catalogue d'amas confirmés spectroscopiquement à grand redshift et, pour la première fois à ces redshifts, d’étudier de manière statistique les propriétés des galaxies membres des amas. Dans cette Thèse, nous caractérisons et étudions 20 candidats amas à redshifts 1.4 < z < 2.8 parmi les candidats les plus prometteurs de l’échantillon CARLA. Nous réduisons et analysons des données spectroscopiques grism sans fente et imagerie proche-infrarouge des amas candidats, obtenues avec le télescope spatial Hubble. Nous mesurons plus de 700 redshifts au sein des champs observés, et confirmons spectroscopiquement 16 amas CARLA dans l’intervalle 1.4 < z < 2.8; ces amas sont associés à des noyaux galactiques actifs à fortes émissions radios (RLAGN) en leur centre, par sélection. Cet effort fait plus que doubler le nombre d’amas confirmés à ces redshifts. Nous étudions également le taux de formation stellaire des galaxies membres des amas en fonction de leur masses stellaires, et de la distance aux RLAGN. Nous trouvons que les galaxies membres massives sont situées sous la séquence principale jusqu’à z=2, ce qui suggère déjà à ces redshifts une évolution accélérée des galaxies massives au sein des amas. Nous trouvons également une concentration plus importante de membres actifs à plus petits rayons des RLAGN, jusqu’à z=2. Ceci est en accord avec un renversement de la relation densité vs. taux de formation stellaire pour nos amas CARLA à 1.4 < z < 2.0, ce qui suggère que les amas CARLA représentent une phase de transition de l’évolution des galaxies au sein des amas. Nous étudions également les populations stellaires de deux de nos amas confirmés à redshift z=2.0. Nous analysons les relations couleurs-couleurs et couleurs-magnitudes de ces deux amas et montrons que l’une des structures à z=2 possède une séquence rouge de galaxies passives. Globalement, nos résultats démontrent que les amas CARLA représentent des structures riches comprenant des populations mixtes de galaxies évoluées et massives sans formation stellaire, et des galaxies actives formant des étoiles. Cet échantillon sans précédent de 16 amas confirmés spectroscopiquement dans l’intervalle de redshift 1.4 < z < 2.8 constitue un échantillon idéal pour étudier statistiquement la phase de transition des amas de galaxies, ainsi que les mécanismes de suppression de la formation stellaire. (Abrégé) / Detailed studies of high-redshift confirmed galaxy clusters are based on a few individual objects. In this Thesis, we therefore aim at building the first sample of spectroscopically confirmed clusters at high-redshifts and, for the first time at these redshifts, statistically infer cluster member galaxy properties. In this Thesis, we study and characterize 20 cluster candidates at redshifts 1.4 < z < 2.8, which represent the most promising cluster candidates from the CARLA sample. We reduce and analyze slitless grism spectroscopic and near-infrared imaging data of the fields, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. We measure redshifts for over 700 star-forming sources in the 20 fields, and we spectroscopically confirm 16 CARLA clusters in the range 1.4 < z < 2.8; by selection, these clusters are associated with powerful radio-loud active galactic nuclei (RLAGN) at their center. This effort alone more than doubles the number of confirmed clusters at these redshifts. We study cluster member star-formation rates (SFRs) as a function of their stellar masses and distances from the RLAGN. We find that massive members are located below their star-forming main-sequence up to z=2. This implies that the massive star-forming end of the cluster population already followed an accelerated evolution at these high redshifts. We also find an increasing concentration of star-forming members with smaller radii relative to the RLAGN, at all redshifts up to z=2. Our 1.4 < z < 2.0 cluster members are therefore consistent with a reversal of the SFR-density relation. This is a first evidence showing that CARLA clusters represent a transition phase for cluster galaxy evolution. We also study stellar populations of two of our confirmed CARLA clusters at z=2.0. We study their color-color and color-magnitude relations and show that one of the two structures is comprised of a z=2 red sequence of passive candidate members. Together, these results provide clear evidence that our confirmed CARLA clusters represent rich structures comprised of mixed populations, including both evolved, passive, massive galaxies, and galaxies with ongoing star formation. Together, this unprecedented sample of 16 confirmed clusters at 1.4 < z < 2.8 constitutes an ideal sample for further statistical investigation of the cluster transition phase, including study of quenching mechanisms. (Abridged)

The recent discovery of a new population of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) – the Radio Loud Narrow Line Seyfert 1 (RL NLS1) galaxies – at g-ray energies by Fermi has prompted intense interest among researchers, as evidence mounts that these objects may in fact compose a new class of blazars. If RL NLS1s are indeed a new class of blazars, or at least analogous to them, then the detection of certain blazar-like properties would be expected. These properties include significant variability at all wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum and on timescales from minutes to years, significant & variable polarization in the radio and optical regimes, significant & variable high-energy emissions (especially in the g-ray regime), and a double-peaked structure of their spectral energy distributions. This dissertation seeks to characterize several of these properties for RL NLS1s as a class. These include the degree to which these objects are polarized and the variability of this property, the detection and characterization of these sources at g-ray energies with the Large Area Telescope aboard the Fermi spacecraft, and the degree to which these properties are interdependent. A photopolarimetric survey (the first of its kind for this class of objects) and g-ray monitoring program were conducted by the author in order to obtain the data necessary for this project. The measurements obtained via these observations are used to characterize this interesting class of objects with respect to a sample of blazars. In general, it was found that the polarizations of these objects fall between radio-quiet NLS1s and FSRQ-type blazars, and were most similar to HBL-type blazars. The 7 RL NLS1s in this sample that had been detected above a Test Statistic (TS) of 25 by Fermi/LAT were most similar to FSRQs, while 9 objects detected in the interval 9 < TS < 25 shared several properties with HBLs. Two RL NLS1s - J1443+4725 and J1644+2619 - are identified as high-confidence (TS > 25) g-ray sources for the first time, bringing the total number of members of this class firmly detected at g-ray energies to 8. The gamma-ray spectra of RL NLS1s are similar to FSRQs, though some have steeper spectra.

Motivated by recent successes in linking the kinetic power of relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei (AGN) to the low-frequency, isotropic lobe emission, I have re-examined the blazar and radio-loud AGN unification scheme through careful analysis of the four parameters we believe to be fundamental in producing a particular jet spectral energy distribution (SED): the kinetic power, accretion power, accretion mode, and orientation. In particular, I have compiled a multi-wavelength database for hundreds of jet SEDs in order to characterize the jet spectrum by the synchrotron peak output, and have conducted an analysis of the steep lobe emission in blazars in order to determine the intrinsic jet power. This study of the link between power and isotropic emission is likely to have a wider applicability to other types or relativistic jet phenomena, such as microquasars. Based on a well-characterized sample of over 200 sources, I suggest a new unification scheme for radio-loud AGN (Meyer et al. 2011) which compliments evidence that a transition in jet power at a few percent of the Eddington luminosity produces two types of relativistic jet (Ghisellini, et al., 2009). The `broken power sequence' addresses a series of recent findings severely at odds with the previous unification scheme. This scheme makes many testable predictions which will can be addressed with a larger body of data, including a way to determine whether the coupling between accretion and jet power is the currently presumed one-to-one correspondence, or whether accretion power forms an upper bound, as very recent observations suggest (Fernandes et al. 2011). This work is a first step toward a unified understanding of the relativistic jets found in radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) and their connection to accretion onto the super-massive black holes from which they emanate.

Supermassive black holes are leading candidates for the regulation of galaxy growth and evolution over cosmic time, via ‘feedback’ processes, whereby outflows from the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) halt star formation within the galaxy. AGN feedback is generally thought to occur in two modes, high-excitation (HERG, or ‘quasar-mode’) and low-excitation (LERG or ’radio-mode’) each having a different effect on the host galaxy. LERGs curtail the growth of the most massive galaxies, whereas HERGs are thought to be activated by mergers/interactions, switching off star formation at high redshift. A critical problem in current extragalactic astrophysics lies in understanding the precise physical mechanisms by which these feedback processes operate, and how they evolve over cosmic time. Radio-loud AGN are an essential tool for studying major feedback mechanisms, as they are found within the largest ellipticals, and hence are beacons for the most massive black holes across the bulk of cosmic time. In this thesis I develop and study existing complete radio samples with extensive new multi-wavelength data in the radio, optical and infrared, aiming to investigate the evolution of AGN feedback modes, and methods to locate and study such systems at the very highest redshifts. This will serve to inform further studies of radio-AGN planned with next generation radio instruments such as the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR). Very few radio-loud AGN systems are currently known at high redshifts, and the effectiveness of traditional high redshift selection techniques, such as selection based on steep spectral index, have not been well quantified. A purely evidence-based approach to determining the efficiency of various high redshift selection techniques is presented, using nine highly spectroscopically complete radio samples; although weak correlations are confirmed between spectral index and linear size and redshift, selection first of infrared-faint radio sources remains by far the most efficient method of selecting high-z radio galaxies from complete samples. Radio spectral curvature in four of the complete samples is analysed and the effect of radio spectral shape on the measurement of the radio luminosity function (RLF) of steep-spectrum radio sources is investigated. Below z=1, curvature has negligible effect on the measurement of the RLF, however at higher redshifts, where source numbers are low, the shape of the radio spectrum should be taken into account, as individual source luminosities can change up to 0.1-0.2 dex, and this can in some cases introduce errors in space density measurements of up to a factor of 2-3 where source numbers are low. Building upon these samples, the very first independent determinations of the separate RLFs for high and low excitation radio sources across the bulk of cosmic time are made, out to z=1. Here it is shown that HERGs show very clear signs of strong evolution, in line with theoretical predictions. LERGs also show some very weak evolution with redshift, showing increases in space density of typically around a factor of 2. These measurements are also used to estimate the contribution of LERGs, which typically show weak or no emission lines to the ‘missing redshift’ population, which are sources within the complete samples not identifiable spectroscopically. Complementary to this, a pilot study is presented in selecting ‘missing redshift’ sources which are classed as infra-red faint (IFRS), which show no optical or near-IR identification, and are compact in the radio. Follow up spectroscopy on these candidate high z sources detected no line emission. Finally, work carried out towards the testing and commissioning of the new LOFAR telescope is presented. The findings from this thesis will serve to both streamline and inform high redshift radio-AGN searches and studies planned to be carried out with LOFAR and other multi-wavelength complementary surveys in the near future, and help to open up an as yet unexplored epoch in radio-AGN formation and evolution.

This thesis presents studies of cosmic populations of extragalactic radio sources. The problems selected for this thesis are 1) the derivation of constraints on the emergence of new sub-mJy populations at flux density below about 1mJy (at1.4 GHz) paying careful attention to including sources with low surface brightness and counting sources rather than components 2) development of a new method to estimate the asymmetry in the large scale galaxy environment with respect to the axes of extended radio sources and use this to examine for evidence of impact of the environment on the morphology of radio sources. The studies presented herein have been carried out using the Australia Telescope Low Brightness Survey (ATLBS), which is a sensitive radio survey at 1.4 GHz, imaging 8.42 square degrees of the sky along with accompanying optical observations of the same region. There are multiple populations of extragalactic radio sources in the cosmos. These consist of populations of powerful radio-loud quasars and radio galaxies to populations of weaker radio sources such as star-forming galaxies. These populations of radio sources show evidence of evolution with cosmic epoch. Because the radio galaxy phenomenon and the AGNs at the centers of their host galaxies may influence the evolution of the galaxy via feedbacks, examinations of these source populations over cosmic time are a necessary complementary study to understanding the process of galaxy formation and in general, cosmology. Below we give brief introduction to the problems studied in this thesis. Sub-mJy Radio Source Counts Radio source counts, which have historically been a key probe of cosmology, now represent a measure of cosmological evolution in radio source populations. Currently, the estimation of source counts at sub-mJy flux density as well as the nature and evolution of these sources is undetermined. At flux densities ≤1.0 mJy a ‘flattening’ of normalized differential source counts has been widely reported in literature( Windhorst et al.(1985),Hopkins et al.(2003),Huynh et al.(2005) and references therein). The flattening is observed as an apparent change of slope for the normalized differential source counts from ∼0.7 at5.0 −100.0 mJy to about 0.4 in the 0.25 −5.0 mJy range. Attempts to understand the nature of the sub-mJy population have arrived at discordant results and identify the sub-mJy sources with different populations: starburst galaxies(Condon(1989), Benn et al. (1993), Huynhet al. (2005)), early type galaxies (Gruppioniet al., 1999),low(radio) luminosity activegalactic nuclei(AGNs)(Huynh et al.,2008) or a mixture of these. Due to unavailability of spectroscopically complete samples of hosts of sub-mJy sources, the exact nature of the sub-mJy radio source population is currently uncertain. However, the presence of a population which emerges at sub-mJy flux density and is different from the AGN-dominated radio source population is not in doubt. The studies in the literature are inconsistent in identifying the precise location of the emergence of flattening in counts at sub-mJy flux density. Several studies show that the source counts are consistent with a continuation in the slope of the differential counts below mJy flux density (Prandoniet al.(2001) and Subrahmanyan et al.(2010)). The scatter in the sub-mJy counts from different studies may be because of the relatively small areas covered by deep surveys(in many cases, a single pointing of an interferometric array) which may have relatively large errors arising from large scale clustering in the spatial distribution of cosmic radio sources(however the study by Condon (2007) concludes that the scatter in the source counts stems from variations in corrections and sensitivity in different studies)In contrast, wide-field surveys may not reach the depth to probe sub-mJy counts. Another reason is the correction applicable to the observed source counts necessary to estimate the true source counts; these are especially pertinent at low flux densities. To resolve these is-sues, a survey which combines the attributes of wide spatial coverage as well as excellent sensitivity and a procedure which accounts for the biases in estimation of the sub-mJy source counts is needed. In conclusion, accurate measurements of the source counts at sub-mJy flux densities are needed to correctly estimate the cosmic evolution of radio sources. Environments of Extended Radio Sources Another issue of importance in the study of extragalactic radio sources is their interaction with their environments. The gas environments in which radio sources reside and evolve ought to have an influence on the morphology of the radio sources. This has been shown in many case studies where the radio structures have been compared with the X-ray gas environments (Blanton et al. (2011); Boehringer et al.(1993)). Studies of the optical environments of radio galaxies have also been carried out previously (Longair & Seldner, 1979; Yee & Green, 1984; Hill & Lilly, 1991; Zirbel, 1997). The motivation behind these studies has been to examine differences between different classes of radio sources, the evolution of environments with cosmic epoch as well as the possibility of identifying clusters/groups of galaxies using radio sources as a tracer(Wing &Blanton, 2011). Many previous studies have found that the environments of FRI/FRII sources are different and are dependent on the cosmic epoch. FRI sources, typically, are found in rich environments. FRII sources in the local universe are generally hosted by field galaxies, but at higher red shifts are found in richer environments(Hatch et al.,2011;Best et al.,2003;Overzier et al.,2008). However, there have been fewer studies that relate the richness of the environments and morphological asymmetries of radio galaxies. Earlier investigations by Subrahmanyan et al. (2008) and Safouris et al.(2009) are noteworthy in this regard where the radio structures of two giant radio galaxies were examined in the context of the large-scale galaxy distributions in their vicinity(also see Chen et al.(2012) and references therein). The study was also used to infer properties of the ambient thermal gas medium in which the structures evolved. Clear correlations between structural asymmetries and associated extended emission-line gas were also found for radio galaxies that have relatively smaller sizes of a few hundred kpc(McCarthy et al., 1991). Thesis Work To progress the field in the problems highlighted above, the following work has been done in this thesis. Radio Imaging of ATLBS Survey To characterize the cosmic evolution of radio sources and their properties, observations and imaging of faint radio sources is essential. The Australia Telescope Low Brightness Survey(ATLBS), which has been used in the studies presented in this thesis, has been designed specifically to image diffuse radio emission to relatively high red shifts(z ∼1−1.5). Therefore obtaining good surface brightness sensitivity was a prime objective in planning the radio observations and in imaging the data obtained from these observations. This requires a nearly complete synthesized aperture and observations of a representative patch of the extra galactic sky. These requirements have been fulfilled in ATLBS survey, which has excellent uv coverage, especially at short spacings, and images a region off the galactic plane that is devoid of strong radio sources. The observations were carried out for two adjacent fields, designated as A and B with their centers at RA:00h 35m 00s,DEC:−67◦00 00 and RA:00h 59m 17s,DEC:−67◦00 00 ,in the 20 cm band, with a center frequency of1388MHz,infullpolarization mode. The radio data was imaged by using techniques such as multi-frequency deconvolution and self-calibration to make two mosaics of region A and B which are free of artefacts. These high-resolution radio images(with beamFWHM of 6 “)of the ATLBS survey regions cover 8.42 square degrees sky area with rms noise 72 µJy beam−1 and are of exceptional quality in that there are no imaging errors or artifacts above the thermal noise over the entire field of view. The images have excellent surface brightness sensitivity and hence provide good representation of extended emission components associated with radio sources. Optical Imaging of ATLBS Survey The ATLBS survey region has been also observed in SDSS r band, specifically for providing information about the galaxies hosting radio sources observed in ATLBS survey as well as galaxies in the neighbourhood of the radio sources. The optical observations were carried out using the CTIO 4 meter Blanco Telescope in Chile and using theMOSAICIIimager,whichisamosaicof8CCDs. In total, 28 optical images were created from the optical data. Each image was formed from a set of 5 dithers, using which spurious sources in the images were rejected. The final images are complete down to a magnitude of 22.75. Radio Source Counts Using the sensitive radio and optical images, a study of radio source counts was carried out. This study made use of some novel strategies and algorithms to generate a source list and correct it for various biases to obtain the radio source counts. More specifically, care was taken to identify sources with low surface brightness by making use of low resolution images for initial identification, and using multiple indicators (including optical images) to identify components of sources. The blending issues inherent in using low resolution images has been avoided using higher resolution images to identify blended sources. Thus, use of low resolution images( beam FWHM =50”′) almost completely removes effects of resolution bias and the use of high resolution images avoids blending issues. These strategies, together with use of optical images to locate candidate galaxy hosts and a careful visual examination of resolved and complex sources instead of automated classification ensures that the ATLBS catalog is a ‘source catalog’ as opposed to a ‘component catalog’. The distinction between ‘sources’ (which are single sources) as opposed to components(parts of a single source appearing separate) is crucial in estimating the true source counts. The source list was used toestimatetheradiosourcecountsdownto0.4 mJy. Comparing the counts with previous work shows that the ATLBS counts are systematically lower and the upturn in sub-mJy source counts has not been found down to the noise limited flux densities probed. The systematically low counts for ATLBS relative to most previous studies are attributed to the ATLBS counts representing sources as opposed to components, as well as corrections for noise bias as well as clustering effects that may affect source counts derived from the small sky coverage typical of deep surveys. This study also demonstrates the substantial difference in counts that result from using component catalogs as opposed to source catalogs: at 1 mJy flux density component counts may be as much as 50% above true source counts. This implies that automated image analysis for counts may be dependent on the ability of the imaging to reproduce connecting emission with low surface brightness as well as the ability of the algorithm to recognize sources, which require that source finding algorithms effectively work with multi-resolution and multi-wavelength data. Galaxy Environments of Extended Radio Sources in ATLBS Survey A study of the galaxy environments of the extended sources in the ATLBS survey was carried out using the optical images. This study of the environments of radio sources from the ATLBS survey is restricted to those that are extended and hence to a subset of the ATLBS-ESS(Extended Source Sample) sources. Briefly, the ATLBS-ESS subsample consists of 119 radio sources that have angular size ex-ceeding0’.5. Applying a red shift cut(to exclude sources with high red shifts whose optical environment may be beyond the depth of the optical images) as well as other constraints(such as availability of optical magnitudes of the host galaxy), a sub-sample of 43 sources was formed, including sources of diverse radio morphologies(FRI/FRII, WATs and HTs)as well as7 radio sources which are highly asymmetric in their radio morphology. For these sources, where no spectroscopic data was available, a red shift estimate was obtained from a magnitude-red shift relation derived from other sources in the ATLBS survey. Using the optical images convolved with a matched filter(following the prescription from Postman et al. (1996))consisting of a radial and magnitude filter, smoothed maps were formed for each source in the sample. These give the likelihood of a cluster being present in a given position in the map (in this case the location of interest being the position of the radio source in the map). Further, five parameters were defined in this study, which give estimates of the angular anisotropy of galaxy density around the axis of the radio source. This method used to quantify environmental asymmetry for the study presented in the thesis is new. The parameters defined thus were used to examine the environments of radio sources in the sample over a wide range in red shift. Specifically a comparison of FRI/FRII environments was made in two different red shift regimes(above and below z = 0.5) and it was found that the FRI and FRII sources inhabit environments of similar richness at low and high red shifts, with no evidence for red shift evolution. The WAT and HT sources were(as expected from earlier studies in literature)found in the most dense environments. Examination of the anisotropy parameters for the asymmetric radio sources clearly showed the influence environment has on radio source morphology, specifically in that the higher density of galaxies was found on the shorter side of the radio sources in almost all cases. Images and Other Resources The radio and optical images are an excellent resource for examining with auto-mated algorithms for source finding, parameter fitting, and morphological classification, and as a resource for testing such algorithms that would be used on upcoming all-sky continuum surveys with the LOFAR and ASKAP/SKA. The techniques and methods developed and presented in the thesis may be used in future studies of radio source populations.

No description available.