VLA-COSMOS 3 GHz Large Project. II.

The survey covers a 2.6 square degree area with a mean rms of ~2.3uJy/beam, cataloging 10,830 sources above 5sigma, and enclosing the full 2 square degree COSMOS field. By combining these radio data with optical, near-infrared (UltraVISTA), and mid-infrared (Spitzer/IRAC) data, as well as X-ray data (Chandra), we find counterparts to radio sources for ~93% of the total radio sample (in the unmasked areas of the COSMOS field, i.e., those not affected by saturated or bright sources in the optical to NIR bands), reaching out to z~6.

We further classify the sources as star forming galaxies or AGN based on various criteria, such as X-ray luminosity, observed MIR color, UV-FIR spectral-energy distribution, rest-frame NUV-optical color corrected for dust extinction, and radio-excess relative to that expected from the hosts' star-formation rate. We separate the AGN into sub-samples dominated by low-to-moderate and moderate-to-high radiative luminosity AGN, candidates for high- redshift analogues to local low- and high-excitation emission line AGN, respectively.