Abstract

Super-massive black holes are ubiquitous in the centre of massive galaxies, and evidence shows that they can influence galaxy evolution, but the details of how this works are still unclear. When going through their active phase, these super-massive black holes, or active galactic nuclei (AGN) can power energetic phenomena seen across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. In the radio waveband, the most spectacular examples of AGN activity are large scale jets on galaxy-cluster scales. AGN without these powerful jets have radio emission, although the emission source(s) are less well known. The historical picture of radio emission from AGN is rapidly being updated with results from new radio surveys, with an emerging picture that is more nuanced. In this talk I will cover the major open questions which radio observations are helping us answer, providing an overview of advances in understanding what part radio emission has to play in the life cycle of AGN . I will focus in particular on what we can learn about the radio-quiet AGN population, and how high resolution imaging using the International LOFAR Telescope (ILT) will be instrumental for this in the next few years.