The evolution of the radio luminosity function of group galaxies in COSMOS

[Abridged] To understand the role of the galaxy group environment on galaxy evolution, we present a study of radio luminosity functions (RLFs) of group galaxies based on the VLA-COSMOS 3 GHz Large Project. The radio-selected sample of 7826 COSMOS galaxies with robust optical/near-infrared counterparts, excellent photometric coverage, and the COSMOS X-ray galaxy groups (M_200c > 10^13.5 M_sun) enables us to construct the RLF of group galaxies (GGs) and their contribution to the total RLF since z   2.3. Using the Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm, we fit a redshift-dependent pure luminosity evolution model and a linear and power-law model to the luminosity functions. We compare it with past RLF studies from VLA-COSMOS on individual populations of radio-selected star-forming galaxies (SFGs) and galaxies hosting active galactic nuclei (AGN). These populations are classified based on the presence or absence of a radio excess concerning the star-formation rates derived from the infrared emission. We find that the RLF of radio group galaxies is low compared to the field up to z   1.25, followed by a sharp increase at z   1 by a factor of 6, and then a smooth decline towards low redshifts. This is due to the low abundance of massive groups at high-z and the AGN occupying lower halo mass groups. Additionally, the slope of the GG RLF is flatter compared to the field, with excess at high radio luminosities. The evolution in the GG RLF is driven mainly by satellite galaxies in groups. In summary, our results show a drop in occurrence of AGN in groups at high redshifts by a factor of 6, suggesting that AGN feedback is lower by a factor of 6 at high-z. This indicates that the bulk of high-z log10(M_200c/M_sun) > 13.5 groups must have been forming recently, and so the cooling has not been established as yet.