We report the final redshift release of the 6dF Galaxy Survey (6dFGS), a combined redshift and peculiar velocity survey over the southern sky (|b| > 10°). Its 136 304 spectra have yielded 110 256 new extragalactic redshifts and a new catalogue of 125 071 galaxies making near‐complete samples with (K, H, J, rF, bJ) ≤ (12.65, 12.95, 13.75, 15.60, 16.75). The median redshift of the survey is 0.053. Survey data, including images, spectra, photometry and redshifts, are available through an online data base. We describe changes to the information in the data base since earlier interim data releases. Future releases will include velocity dispersions, distances and peculiar velocities for the brightest early‐type galaxies, comprising about 10 per cent of the sample. Here we provide redshift maps of the southern local Universe with z≤ 0.1, showing nearby large‐scale structures in hitherto unseen detail. A number of regions known previously to have a paucity of galaxies are confirmed as significantly underdense regions. The URL of the 6dFGS data base is http://www-wfau.roe.ac.uk/6dFGS.

New radio (MeerKAT and Parkes) and X-ray (XMM-Newton, Swift, Chandra, and NuSTAR) observations of PSR J1622–4950 indicate that the magnetar, in a quiescent state since at least early 2015, reactivated between 2017 March 19 and April 5. The radio flux density, while variable, is approximately 100× larger than during its dormant state. The X-ray flux one month after reactivation was at least 800× larger than during quiescence, and has been decaying exponentially on a 111 ± 19 day timescale. This high-flux state, together with a radio-derived rotational ephemeris, enabled for the first time the detection of X-ray pulsations for this magnetar. At 5%, the 0.3–6 keV pulsed fraction is comparable to the smallest observed for magnetars. The overall pulsar geometry inferred from polarized radio emission appears to be broadly consistent with that determined 6–8 years earlier. However, rotating vector model fits suggest that we are now seeing radio emission from a different location in the magnetosphere than previously. This indicates a novel way in which radio emission from magnetars can differ from that of ordinary pulsars. The torque on the neutron star is varying rapidly and unsteadily, as is common for magnetars following outburst, having changed by a factor of 7 within six months of reactivation.

To exploit synergies between the Herschel Space Observatory and next generation radio facilities, we have extended the semi‐empirical extragalactic radio continuum simulation of Wilman et al. to the mid‐ and far‐infrared. Here, we describe the assignment of infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs) to the star‐forming galaxies and active galactic nuclei, using Spitzer 24, 70 and 160 μm and SCUBA 850 μm survey results as the main constraints. Star‐forming galaxies dominate the source counts, and a model in which their far‐infrared–radio correlation and infrared SED assignment procedure are invariant with redshift underpredicts the observed 24 and 70 μm source counts. The 70 μm deficit can be eliminated if the star‐forming galaxies undergo stronger luminosity evolution than originally assumed for the radio simulation, a requirement which may be partially ascribed to known non‐linearity in the far‐infrared–radio correlation at low luminosity if it evolves with redshift. At 24 μm, the shortfall is reduced if the star‐forming galaxies develop SEDs with cooler dust and correspondingly stronger polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission features with increasing redshift at a given far‐infrared luminosity, but this trend may reverse at z > 1 in order not to overproduce the submillimetre source counts. The resulting model compares favourably with recent Balloon‐borne Large Aperture Submillimetre Telescope (BLAST) results, and we have extended the simulation data base to aid the interpretation of Herschel surveys. Such comparisons may also facilitate further model refinement and revised predictions for the Square Kilometre Array and its precursors.

We present the confusion-limited 1.28 GHz MeerKAT DEEP2 image covering one q » ¢ 68 FWHM b Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts: Radio telescopes (1360); Galaxy counts (588); Star formation (1569)

The definitive version can be found at : http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ Copyright Wiley-BlackwellWe use the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, along with the NRAO VLA Sky Survey and the Westerbork Northern Sky Survey to define a sample of 746 radio-loud quasars and measure their 330 MHz-1.4 GHz spectral indexes. Following previous authors we take the radio spectral index as an indicator of the orientation towards the quasars such that more pole-on sources tend to have flatter spectral indexes. We use this proxy for the orientation of quasars to investigate the effect orientation may have on optical spectra. Quasars with flatter spectral indexes tend to be brighter. However, we find no indication of reddening in steep-spectrum quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) to indicate obscuration of the accretion disc by a torus as a possible explanation. Nor do we find increased reddening in the flat-spectrum sources which could imply a contribution from jet-related synchrotron emission. We reproduce a previously described anticorrelation between the width of the Mg ii line and radio spectral index that indicates a disc-like geometry for the Mg ii broad-line region (BLR). However, in contrast to previous authors we find no such correlation for the C iv line suggesting a more isotropic high-ionization BLR. Both the [O ii] and [O iii] narrow lines have more flux in steep spectrum sources, while the [O iii]/[O ii] flux ratio is lower in these sources. To describe both of these effects we propose a simple geometric model in which the narrow-line region (NLR) exists primarily on the surface of optically thick clouds facing the active nucleus and the NLR is stratified such that higher ionization lines are found preferentially closer to the nucleus. Quantitatively we find that orientation may effect the observed strength of narrow lines, as well as ratios between lines, by a factor of similar to 2. These findings have implications for the use of [O iii] and [O ii] emission lines to estimate bolometric luminosities, as well as comparisons between narrow-line luminosity functions for type 1 and 2 objects and the potential of emission-line diagnostic diagrams as an accurate tool with which to distinguish types of active galactic nuclei. Finally we find no evidence that broad-absorption line (BAL) QSOs have a different spectral index distribution to non-BALs although we only have 25 obvious BALs in our sample