SIMBAD references

Until recently, VLBI surveys of extragalactic radio sources were limited to total flux densities of ∼100 mJy. We present early results of pilot observations of the Deep Extragalactic VLBI-Optical Survey aimed at improving this limit by at least an order of magnitude. Based on our pilot observations we estimate that a sample of ∼10⁴ faint compact extragalactic sources can now be surveyed on milliarcsecond scales at cm wavelengths. A large fraction of the sample will be optically identified by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). There will be a number of possibilities to use such a large sample, including the study of the cosmological evolution of the population of mJy-level extragalactic radio sources, cosmological tests and astrometric applications.