The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey: the radio view of the cosmic star formation history

Understand

We present a detailed study of the cosmic star formation history over $90$ per cent of cosmic time ($0\lesssim z\lesssim4$), using deep, radio continuum observations that probe star formation activity independent of dust.

• The Low Frequency Array Two Metre Sky Survey has imaged three well-studied extragalactic fields, Elais-N1, Bo\"otes and the Lockman Hole, reaching $\sim20\,\mu\rm{Jy/beam}$ rms sensitivity at $150\,\rm{MHz}$.
• The availability of high-quality ancillary data from ultraviolet to far-infrared wavelengths has enabled accurate photometric redshifts and the robust separation of radio-bright AGN from their star-forming counterparts.
• We capitalise on this unique combination of deep, wide fields and robustly-selected star-forming galaxies to construct radio luminosity functions and derive the cosmic star formation rate density.