Tracing Radio AGN-Driven Quenching in Post-Starburst Galaxies at Cosmic Noon

[2605.11101] Tracing Radio AGN-Driven Quenching in Post-Starburst Galaxies at Cosmic Noon Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Astrophysics > Astrophysics of Galaxies arXiv:2605.11101 (astro-ph) [Submitted on 11 May 2026] Title: Tracing Radio AGN-Driven Quenching in Post-Starburst Galaxies at Cosmic Noon Authors: Pallavi Patil , Kate Rowlands , Katherine Alatalo , Omar Almaini , Vivienne Wild , David Maltby , Rob J. Ivison , Vinod Arumugam , K. Decker French , Timothy Heckman , Mark Lacy , Yuanze Luo , Kristina Nyland , Justin Atsushi Otter , Andreea Petric , Namrata Roy , Maya Skarbinski View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: We present a radio continuum study of photometrically selected cosmic noon (0.5<z<3) post-starburst galaxies (PSBs) in the UKIDSS Deep Survey (UDS) field to assess if radio-mode Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are linked to the quenching of star formation at cosmic noon. Our cross-matching using the deep Very Large Array (VLA) imaging at 1.4 GHz results in a mean radio detection fraction ($f_{det}$) of only 0.8$\%$ for PSBs above a radio luminosity threshold of $L_{\rm 1.4 GHz} \geq 10^{24}$ W Hz$^{-1}$, increasing to 5$\pm2\%$ for massive PSBs with stellar masses M$_*>10^{11}$M$_\odot$. Massive PSBs have a comparable detection fraction to that of massive quiescent galaxies ($f_{det}=8\pm1\%$), and both classes have lower fractions than that of massive star-forming galaxies ($f_{det}=13\pm1\%$) in the same field. The radio luminosities of detected PSBs, ${\rm L}_{1.4}\sim 10^{22.8}-10^{24.9}$W/Hz, exceed those from star formation by a median factor of 37 indicative of a possible AGN origin. Their compact morphologies ($\lesssim15$ kpc at $z_{med}=1.5$) suggest low-luminosity AGN with less powerful jets. Stacking the undetected PSBs reveals a weak radio detection ($3.9\sigma$) in the highest mass bin (M$_*>10^{11}$M$_\odot$). In contrast, 1.4 GHz detected quiescent galaxies have radio luminosities reaching radio-loud levels, and a higher prevalence of extended morphologies indicative of large-scale jetted AGN. The AGN contribution is also detected in stacked measurements of quiescent galaxies. Overall, our results support a short radio AGN duty cycle for PSBs, characterized by weak radio jets, suggesting radio-driven maintenance mode feedback may become important at older ages. Comments: 25 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) Cite as: arXiv:2605.11101 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:2605.11101v1 [astro-ph.GA] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.11101 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Related DOI : https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae70ef Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources Submission history From: Pallavi Patil [ view email ] [v1] Mon, 11 May 2026 18:06:52 UTC (7,851 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: astro-ph.GA < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-05 Change to browse by: astro-ph References & Citations SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) IArxiv recommender toggle IArxiv Recommender ( What is IArxiv? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. 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