Non-steller light from high-redshift radiogalaxies

Abstract

With the aid of a new IRCAM image of 3C356, researchers question the common assumption that radiosource-stimulated starbursts are responsible for the extended optical emission aligned with radio structures in high-redshift radiogalaxies. They propose an alternative model in which the radiation from a hidden luminous quasar is beamed along the radio axis and illuminates dense clumps of cool gas to produce both extended narrow emission line regions and, by Thomson scattering, extended optical continua. Simple observational tests of this model are possible and necessary if we are to continue to accept that the color, magnitude and shape evolution of radiogalaxies are controlled by the active evolution of stellar populations.