Context. High-redshift radio galaxies can provide important insights into the structure formation and galaxy evolution at earlier cosmological epochs. TGSS J1530+1049 was selected as a candidate high-redshift radio galaxy, based on its very steep radio spectrum. Subsequent observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) presented in a companion paper (Saxena et al., submitted) have shown that it is located at a redshift z = 4.0. The JWST data furthermore showed that the radio source is part of one of the densest structures of galaxies and ionized gas known at these redshifts. The complex system qualitatively resembles a massive (cluster) galaxy forming early through a rapid succession of mergers.
Aims. TGSS J1530+1049 is an unresolved source down to ∼ 0.6 ′′ scale in multiple radio surveys. To reveal its high-resolution radio structure and allow for a detailed comparison with JWST observations, we studied its morphology at various angular scales with different radio interferometric instruments.
Methods. We observed TGSS J1530+1049 at milliarcsecond (mas) scale angular resolution with the European VLBI Network (EVN), and at ∼ 100-mas scale resolution with the enhanced Multi-Element Remotely Linked Interferometer Network (e-MERLIN).
Results. We recovered a complex north–south oriented structure with steep-spectrum radio-emitting features, which are associated with lobes and hot spots of a jetted active galactic nucleus. However, the centre of the radio galaxy proved to be too faint at cm wavelengths to be unambiguously detected in our observations. Nevertheless, the linear size (∼ 5.5 kpc) and the radio power (L1.4GHz ≈ 3 × 1027 W Hz−1 ) place it among the so-called medium-sized symmetric objects, a smaller and/or confined version of larger radio galaxies. Comparison between the radio morphology and that of the ionized gas as observed with the NIRSpec IFU on JWST shows that the two are closely aligned. However, the optical emission line gas extends out to ∼ 25 kpc, which is well beyond the detected radio structures.