No Arabic abstract
To investigate the relationship between thermal and non-thermal components in merger galaxy clusters, we present deep JVLA and Chandra observations of the HST Frontier Fields cluster MACS J0717.5+3745. The Chandra image shows a complex merger event, with at least four components belonging to different merging subclusters. NW of the cluster, $sim 0.7$ Mpc from the center, there is a ram-pressure-stripped core that appears to have traversed the densest parts of the cluster after entering the ICM from the direction of a galaxy filament to the SE. We detect a density discontinuity NNE of this core which we speculate is associated with a cold front. Our radio images reveal new details for the complex radio relic and radio halo in this cluster. In addition, we discover several new filamentary radio sources with sizes of 100-300 kpc. A few of these seem to be connected to the main radio relic, while others are either embedded within the radio halo or projected onto it. A narrow-angled-tailed (NAT) radio galaxy, a cluster member, is located at the center of the radio relic. The steep spectrum tails of this AGN leads into the large radio relic where the radio spectrum flattens again. This morphological connection between the NAT radio galaxy and relic provides evidence for re-acceleration (revival) of fossil electrons. The presence of hot $gtrsim 20$ keV ICM gas detected by Chandra near the relic location provides additional support for this re-acceleration scenario.
We report on high-resolution JVLA and Chandra observations of the HST Frontier Cluster MACS J0717.5+3745. MACS J0717.5+3745 offers the largest contiguous magnified area of any known cluster, making it a promising target to search for lensed radio and X-ray sources. With the high-resolution 1.0-6.5 GHz JVLA imaging in A and B configuration, we detect a total of 51 compact radio sources within the area covered by the HST imaging. Within this sample we find 7 lensed sources with amplification factors larger than $2$. None of these sources are identified as multiply-lensed. Based on the radio luminosities, the majority of these sources are likely star forming galaxies with star formation rates of 10-50 M$_odot$ yr$^{-1}$ located at $1 lesssim z lesssim 2$. Two of the lensed radio sources are also detected in the Chandra image of the cluster. These two sources are likely AGN, given their $2-10$ keV X-ray luminosities of $sim 10^{43-44}$ erg s$^{-1}$. From the derived radio luminosity function, we find evidence for an increase in the number density of radio sources at $0.6<z<2.0$, compared to a $z < 0.3$ sample. Our observations indicate that deep radio imaging of lensing clusters can be used to study star forming galaxies, with star formation rates as low as $sim10$ M$_{odot}$ yr$^{-1}$, at the peak of cosmic star formation history.
Merging galaxy clusters leave long-lasting signatures on the baryonic and non-baryonic cluster constituents, including shock fronts, cold fronts, X-ray substructure, radio halos, and offsets between the dark matter and the gas components. Using observations from Chandra, the Jansky Very Large Array, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, and the Hubble Space Telescope, we present a multiwavelength analysis of the merging Frontier Fields cluster MACS J0416.1-2403 (z=0.396), which consists of a NE and a SW subclusters whose cores are separated on the sky by ~250 kpc. We find that the NE subcluster has a compact core and hosts an X-ray cavity, yet it is not a cool core. Approximately 450 kpc south-south west of the SW subcluster, we detect a density discontinuity that corresponds to a compression factor of ~1.5. The discontinuity was most likely caused by the interaction of the SW subcluster with a less massive structure detected in the lensing maps SW of the subclusters center. For both the NE and the SW subclusters, the dark matter and the gas components are well-aligned, suggesting that MACS J0416.1-2403 is a pre-merging system. The cluster also hosts a radio halo, which is unusual for a pre-merging system. The halo has a 1.4 GHz power of (1.06 +/- 0.09) x 10^{24} W Hz^{-1}, which is somewhat lower than expected based on the X-ray luminosity of the cluster. We suggest that we are either witnessing the birth of a radio halo, or have discovered a rare ultra-steep spectrum halo.
The HST Frontier Fields cluster MACS J1149.6+2223 is one of the most complex merging clusters, believed to consist of four dark matter halos. We present results from deep (365 ks) Chandra observations of the cluster, which reveal the most distant cold front (z=0.544) discovered to date. In the cluster outskirts, we also detect hints of a surface brightness edge that could be the bow shock preceding the cold front. The substructure analysis of the cluster identified several components with large relative radial velocities, thus indicating that at least some collisions occur almost along the line of sight. The inclination of the mergers with respect to the plane of the sky poses significant observational challenges at X-ray wavelengths. MACS J1149.6+2223 possibly hosts a steep-spectrum radio halo. If the steepness of the radio halo is confirmed, then the radio spectrum, combined with the relatively regular ICM morphology, could indicate that MACS J1149.6+2223 is an old merging cluster.
[abridged] We present a strong-lensing analysis of MACSJ0717.5+3745, based on the full depth of the Hubble Frontier Field (HFF) observations, which brings the number of multiply imaged systems to 61, ten of which are spectroscopically confirmed. The total number of images comprised in these systems rises to 165. Our analysis uses a parametric mass reconstruction technique, as implemented in the Lenstool software, to constrain a mass distribution composed of four large-scale mass components + galaxy-scale perturbers. We find a superposition of cored isothermal mass components to provide a good fit to the observational constraints, resulting in a very shallow mass distribution for the smooth (large-scale) component. Given the implications of such a flat mass profile, we investigate whether a model composed of peaky non-cored mass components can also reproduce the observational constraints. We find that such a non-cored mass model reproduces the observational constraints equally well. Although the total mass distributions of both models are consistent, as well as the integrated two dimensional mass profiles, we find that the smooth and the galaxy-scale components are very different. We conclude that, even in the HFF era, the generic degeneracy between smooth and galaxy-scale components is not broken, in particular in such a complex galaxy cluster. Consequently, insights into the mass distribution of MACS J0717 remain limited, underlining the need for additional probes beyond strong lensing. Our findings also have implications for estimates of the lensing magnification: we show that the amplification difference between the two models is larger than the error associated with either model. This uncertainty decreases the area of the image plane where we can reliably study the high-redshift Universe by 50 to 70%.
We present results from LOFAR and GMRT observations of the galaxy cluster MACS$,$J0717.5$+$3745. The cluster is undergoing a violent merger involving at least four sub-clusters, and it is known to host a radio halo. LOFAR observations reveal new sources of radio emission in the Intra-Cluster Medium: (i) a radio bridge that connects the cluster to a head-tail radio galaxy located along a filament of galaxies falling into the main cluster, (ii) a 1.9 Mpc radio arc, that is located North West of the main mass component, (iii) radio emission along the X-ray bar, that traces the gas in the X-rays South West of the cluster centre. We use deep GMRT observations at 608 MHz to constrain the spectral indices of these new radio sources, and of the emission that was already studied in the literature at higher frequency. We find that the spectrum of the radio halo and of the relic at LOFAR frequency follows the same power law as observed at higher frequencies. The radio bridge, the radio arc, and the radio bar all have steep spectra, which can be used to constrain the particle acceleration mechanisms. We argue that the radio bridge could be caused by the re-acceleration of electrons by shock waves that are injected along the filament during the cluster mass assembly. Despite the sensitivity reached by our observations, the emission from the radio halo does not trace the emission of the gas revealed by X-ray observations. We argue that this could be due to the difference in the ratio of kinetic over thermal energy of the intra-cluster gas, suggested by X-ray observations.