DOI

https://doi.org/10.48717/b3hv-tn12

Project

ED051

Title

MeerKAT MIGHTEE high-z OHM

Abstract

There has been a recent resurgence in hydroxyl megamaser (OHM) research driven by the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and its precursor/pathfinder telescopes, all of which will greatly expand our view of OHMs and their cosmic evolution over >80 per cent of the age of the universe. This will yield large scientific returns as OHMs trace galaxy mergers, extreme star formation, high molecular gas densities, and potentially binary/dual supermassive black hole systems. A key question to understanding these far-infrared luminous, highly-obscured OHM host galaxies is the relative energy output between the considerable star formation and any potential active galactic nuclei present. This is especially relevant given the significant increase in AGN and star-formation rate space density towards higher redshift. Here we propose dual-band EVN + eMERLIN observations to disentangle what powers the radio continuum emission of the highest-redshift (z = 0.7), highest-luminosity (1.6 x 10^4 L_sun) main-line OHM known, recently discovered in the MeerKAT MIGHTEE survey of the COSMOS extragalactic field. We use marginally resolved VLA A-config L- and S-band maps to argue why there might be a flat-spectrum radio core present in this high redshift OHM.