The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) is an ongoing sensitive, high-resolution 120–168 MHz survey of the entire northern sky for which observations are now 20% complete. We present our first full-quality public data release. For this data release 424 square degrees, or 2% of the eventual coverage, in the region of the HETDEX Spring Field (right ascension 10h45m00s to 15h30m00s and declination 45°00′00″ to 57°00′00″) were mapped using a fully automated direction-dependent calibration and imaging pipeline that we developed. A total of 325 694 sources are detected with a signal of at least five times the noise, and the source density is a factor of ∼10 higher than the most sensitive existing very wide-area radio-continuum surveys. The median sensitivity is S144 MHz = 71 μJy beam−1 and the point-source completeness is 90% at an integrated flux density of 0.45 mJy. The resolution of the images is 6″ and the positional accuracy is within 0.2″. This data release consists of a catalogue containing location, flux, and shape estimates together with 58 mosaic images that cover the catalogued area. In this paper we provide an overview of the data release with a focus on the processing of the LOFAR data and the characteristics of the resulting images. In two accompanying papers we provide the radio source associations and deblending and, where possible, the optical identifications of the radio sources together with the photometric redshifts and properties of the host galaxies. These data release papers are published together with a further ∼20 articles that highlight the scientific potential of LoTSS.

The Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS) is a synoptic, all-sky radio sky survey with a unique combination of high angular resolution (≈2 5), sensitivity (a 1σ goal of 70 μJy/beam in the coadded data), full linear Stokes polarimetry, time domain coverage, and wide bandwidth (2-4 GHz). The first observations began in 2017 September, and observing for the survey will finish in 2024. VLASS will use approximately 5500 hr of time on the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to cover the whole sky visible to the VLA (decl. >−40°), a total of 33 885deg 2. The data will be taken in three epochs to allow the discovery of variable and transient radio sources. The survey is designed to engage radio astronomy experts, multi-wavelength astronomers, and citizen scientists alike. By utilizing an "on the fly" interferometry mode, the observing overheads are much reduced compared to a conventional pointed survey. In this paper, we present the science case and observational strategy for the survey, and also results from early survey observations.

We aim to summarize the current state of knowledge regarding Galactic Faraday rotation in an all-sky map of the Galactic Faraday depth. For this we have assembled the most extensive catalog of Faraday rotation data of compact extragalactic polarized radio sources to date. In the map-making procedure we used a recently developed algorithm that reconstructs the map and the power spectrum of a statistically isotropic and homogeneous field while taking into account uncertainties in the noise statistics. This procedure is able to identify some rotation angles that are offset by an integer multiple of π. The resulting map can be seen as an improved version of earlier such maps and is made publicly available, along with a map of its uncertainty. For the angular power spectrum we find a power law behavior C ∝ −2.17 for a Faraday sky where an overall variance profile as a function of Galactic latitude has been removed, in agreement with earlier work. We show that this is in accordance with a 3D Fourier power spectrum P(k) ∝ k −2.17 of the underlying field n e B r under simplifying geometrical and statistical assumptions.

We use observations of six 'blazars' with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), at eight frequencies (4.6, 5.1, 7.9, 8.9, 12.9, 15.4, 22.2 and 43.1 GHz), to investigate the frequency-dependent position of their VLBI cores ('core-shift') and their overall jet spectral distribution. By cross-correlating the optically thin jet emission, we are able to accurately align the multifrequency images of three of the jets (1418+546, 2007+777, 2200+420), whose core-shifts and spectra we find consistent with the equipartition regime of the Blandford & Konigl conical jet model, where the position of the radio core from the base of the jet follows r(core)(nu) proportional to nu-1. For the jet of 0954+658, we align the higher frequency images using our lower frequency measurements assuming equipartition in the radio core from 4.6-43 GHz. The jet emission of the other two sources in our sample (1156+295, 1749+096) is too sparse for our alignment technique to work. Using our measured core-shifts, we calculate equipartition magnetic field strengths of the order of 10s to 100s of mG in the radio cores of these four AGN from 4.6-43 GHz. Extrapolating our results back to the accretion disc and black hole jet-launching distances, we find magnetic field strengths consistent with those expected from theoretical models of magnetically powered jets

We constructed a sample of 23 344 radio-loud active galactic nuclei (RLAGN) from the catalogue derived from the LOFAR Two-Metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) survey of the HETDEX Spring field. Although separating AGN from star-forming galaxies remains challenging, the combination of spectroscopic and photometric techniques we used gives us one of the largest available samples of candidate RLAGN. We used the sample, combined with recently developed analytical models, to investigate the lifetime distribution of RLAGN. We show that large or giant powerful RLAGN are probably the old tail of the general RLAGN population, but that the low-luminosity RLAGN candidates in our sample, many of which have sizes < 100 kpc, either require a very different lifetime distribution or have different jet physics from the more powerful objects. We then used analytical models to develop a method of estimating jet kinetic powers for our candidate objects and constructed a jet kinetic luminosity function based on these estimates. These values can be compared to observational quantities, such as the integrated radiative luminosity of groups and clusters, and to the predictions from models of RLAGN feedback in galaxy formation and evolution. In particular, we show that RLAGN in the local Universe are able to supply all the energy required per comoving unit volume to counterbalance X-ray radiative losses from groups and clusters and thus prevent the hot gas from cooling. Our computation of the kinetic luminosity density of local RLAGN is in good agreement with other recent observational estimates and with models of galaxy formation.

A 45 deg 2 radio continuum imaging campaign of the nearest radio galaxy, Centaurus A, is reported. Using the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Parkes 64 m radio telescope at 1.4 GHz, the spatial resolution of the resultant image is ∼600 pc (∼ 50 ), resolving the 500 kpc giant radio lobes with approximately five times better physical resolution compared to any previous image, and making this the most detailed radio continuum image of any radio galaxy to date. In this paper, we present these new data and discuss briefly some of the most interesting morphological features that we have discovered in the images. The two giant outer lobes are highly structured and considerably distinct. The southern part of the giant northern lobe naturally extends out from the nothern middle lobe with uniformly north-streaming emission. The well known northern loop is resolved into a series of semi regular shells with a spacing of approximately 25 kpc. The northern part of the giant northern lobe also contains identifiable filaments and partial ring structures. As seen in previous single dish images at lower angular resolution, the giant southern lobe is not physically connected to the core at radio wavelengths. Almost the entirety of the giant southern lobe is resolved into a largely chaotic and mottled structure which appears considerably different (morphologically) to the diffuse regularity of the northern lobe. We report the discovery of a vertex and a vortex near the western boundary of the southern lobe; two striking, high surface-brightness features that are named based on their morphology and not their dynamics (which are presently unkown). The vortex and vertex are modelled as re-accelerated lobe emission due to shocks from the AGN itself or from the passage of a dwarf elliptical galaxy through lobe. Preliminary polarimetric and spectral index studies support a plasma reacceleration model and could explain the origin of the Faraday rotation structure detected in the southern lobe. In addition, there are a series of low surface brightness wisps detected around the edges of both the giant lobes.

Strong singly-ionized magnesium (MgII) absorption lines in quasar spectra typically serve as a proxy for intervening galaxies along the line of sight. Previous studies have found a correlation between the number of these MgII absorbers and the Faraday rotation measure (RM) at ≈ 5 GHz. We cross-match a sample of 35,752 optically-identified non-intrinsic MgII absorption systems with 25,649 polarized background radio sources for which we have measurements of both the spectral index and RM at 1.4 GHz. We use the spectral index to split the resulting sample of 599 sources into flat-spectrum and steep-spectrum subsamples. We find that our flat-spectrum sample shows significant (∼ 3.5σ) evidence for a correlation between MgII absorption and RM at 1.4 GHz, while our steep-spectrum sample shows no such correlation. We argue that such an effect cannot be explained by either luminosity or other observational effects, by evolution in another confounding variable, by wavelength-dependent polarization structure in an active galactic nucleus, by the Galactic foreground, by cosmological expansion, or by partial coverage models. We conclude that our data are most consistent with intervenors directly contributing to the Faraday rotation along the line of sight, and that the intervening systems must therefore have coherent magnetic fields of substantial strength (B = 1.8 ± 0.4 µG). Nevertheless, the weak nature of the correlation will require future high-resolution and broadband radio observations in order to place it on a much firmer statistical footing.

Homan & Lister have recently published circular polarization (CP) detections for 34 objects in the MOJAVE sample - a set of bright, compact active galactic nuclei (AGN) being monitored by the Very Long Baseline Array at 15 GHz. We report the detection of 15-GHz parsec-scale CP in two more AGN (3C 345 and 2231+114), and confirm the MOJAVE detection of CP in 1633+382. It is generally believed that the most likely mechanism for the generation of this CP is Faraday conversion of linear polarization (LP) to CP. A helical jet magnetic field (B field) geometry can facilitate this process-linearly polarized emission from the far side of the jet is converted to CP as it passes through the magnetized plasma at the front side of the jet on its way towards the observer. In this case, the sign of the generated CP is essentially determined by the pitch angle and helicity of the helical B field. We have determined the pitch-angle regimes and helicities of the helical jet B fields in eight AGN for which parsec-scale CP has been detected, and used them to predict the expected CP signs for these AGN if the CP is generated via conversion in these helical fields. We have obtained the intriguing result that our predictions agree with the observed signs in all eight cases, provided that the longitudinal B field components in the jets correspond to south magnetic poles. This clearly non-random pattern demonstrates that the observed CP in AGN is directly associated with the presence of helical jet B fields. These results suggest that helical B fields are ubiquitous in AGN jets