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Register a new userFaraday rotation study of NGC 612 (PKS 0131-36): a hybrid radio source and its magnetised circumgalactic environment
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Added by
Shane P. O'Sullivan
Publication date
2018
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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We present a polarization and Faraday rotation study of the hybrid morphology radio galaxy NGC 612 (PKS 0131-36), using Australian Telescope Compact Array observations from 1 to 3 GHz. In general, the results are consistent with an external Faraday screen close to the radio source. In the eastern FRII lobe, the RM of the hotspot increases in magnitude towards the leading edge, as well as changing sign (compared to the rest of the lobe). The Faraday depolarization is also ~3 times larger at the hotspot than elsewhere. A plausible explanation for this is significant compression of ambient magnetised gas by the bow shock produced by the advancing hotspot. The western FRI lobe also exhibits some evidence of interaction with local magnetised gas, as a transverse band of high RM coincides with a distinct bend in the lobe. Previous observations of NGC 612 revealed an HI bridge of tidal debris along the direction of the eastern lobe towards the gas-rich companion NGC 619. We find no clear evidence that ionised gas associated with this bridge is either mixing with or lies in the foreground of the radio source. This is consistent with the absence of HI absorption against the hotspot, and indicates that the tidal debris must lie mostly behind the eastern lobe.
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Most radio galaxies are hosted by giant gas-poor ellipticals, but some contain significant amounts of dust, which is likely to be of external origin. In order to characterize the mid-IR properties of two of the most nearby and brightest merger-remnant radio galaxies of the Southern hemisphere, NGC 1316 (Fornax A) and NGC 612 (PKS 0131-36), we used observations with the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) at wavelengths of 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 micron and Spitzer mid-infrared spectra. By applying a resolution-enhancement technique, new WISE images were produced at angular resolutions ranging from 2.6 to 5.5. Global measurements were performed in the four WISE bands, and stellar masses and star-formation rates were estimated using published scaling relations. Two methods were used to uncover the distribution of dust, one relying on two-dimensional fits to the 3.4 micron images to model the starlight, and the other one using a simple scaling and subtraction of the 3.4 micron images to estimate the stellar continuum contribution to the emission in the 12 and 22 micron bands. The two galaxies differ markedly in their mid-IR properties. The 3.4 micron brightness distribution can be well represented by the superposition of two Sersic models in NGC 1316 and by a Sersic model and an exponential disk in NGC 612. The WISE colors of NGC 1316 are typical of those of early-type galaxies; those of NGC 612 are in the range found for star-forming galaxies. From the 22 micron luminosity, we infer a star-formation rate of about 0.7 solar masses per year in NGC 1316 and about 7 solar masses per year in NGC 612. Spitzer spectroscopy shows that the 7.7-to-11.3 micron PAH line ratio is significantly lower in NGC 1316 than in NGC 612. The WISE images reveal resolved emission from dust in the central 1-2 of the galaxies. (Abridged)
We present the detection of an enormous disc of cool neutral hydrogen (HI) gas surrounding the S0 galaxy NGC 612, which hosts one of the nearest powerful radio sources (PKS 0131-36). Using the Australia Telescope Compact Array, we detect M_HI = 1.8 x 10^9 M_sun of HI emission-line gas that is distributed in a 140 kpc wide disc-like structure along the optical disc and dust-lane of NGC 612. The bulk of the gas in the disc appears to be settled in regular rotation with a total velocity range of 850 km/s, although asymmetries in this disc indicate that perturbations are being exerted on part of the gas, possibly by a number of nearby companions. The HI disc in NGC 612 suggests that the total mass enclosed by the system is M_enc ~ 2.9 x 10^12 sin^-2(i) M_sun, implying that this early-type galaxy contains a massive dark matter halo. We also discuss an earlier study by Holt et al. that revealed the presence of a prominent young stellar population at various locations throughout the disc of NGC 612, indicating that this is a rare example of an extended radio source that is hosted by a galaxy with a large-scale star-forming disc. In addition, we map a faint HI bridge along a distance of 400 kpc in between NGC 612 and the gas-rich (M_HI = 8.9 x 10^9 M_sun) barred galaxy NGC 619, indicating that likely an interaction between both systems occurred. From the unusual amounts of HI gas and young stars in this early-type galaxy, in combination with the detection of a faint optical shell and the systems high infra-red luminosity, we argue that either ongoing or past galaxy interactions or a major merger event are a likely mechanism for the triggering of the radio source in NGC 612. This paper is part of an ongoing study to map the large-scale neutral hydrogen properties of nearby radio galaxies. --abridged--
We present a broadband polarization analysis of 36 discrete polarized radio sources over a very broad, densely-sampled frequency band. Our sample was selected on the basis of polarization behaviour apparent in narrowband archival data at 1.4 GHz: half the sample show complicated frequency-dependent polarization behaviour (i.e. Faraday complexity) at these frequencies, while half show comparatively simple behaviour (i.e. they appear Faraday simple). We re-observed the sample using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) in full polarization, with 6 GHz of densely sampled frequency coverage spanning 1.3 to 10 GHz. We have devised a general polarization modelling technique that allows us to identify multiple polarized emission components in a source, and to characterize their properties. We detect Faraday complex behaviour in almost every source in our sample. Several sources exhibit particularly remarkable polarization behaviour. By comparing our new and archival data, we have identified temporal variability in the broadband integrated polarization spectra of some sources. In a number of cases, the characteristics of the polarized emission components, including the range of Faraday depths over which they emit, their temporal variability, spectral index, and the linear extent of the source, allow us to argue that the spectropolarimetric data encodes information about the magnetoionic environment of active galactic nuclei themselves. Furthermore, the data place direct constraints on the geometry and magnetoionic structure of this material. We discuss the consequences of restricted frequency bands on the detection and interpretation of polarization structures, and implications for upcoming spectropolarimetric surveys.
We present full-polarisation, broadband observations of the radio galaxy NGC 612 (PKS B0131-637) from 1.3 to 3.1 GHz using the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The relatively large angular scale of the radio galaxy makes it a good candidate with which to investigate the polarisation mechanisms responsible for the observed Faraday depth structure. By fitting complex polarisation models to the polarised spectrum of each pixel, we find that a single polarisation component can adequately describe the observed signal for the majority of the radio galaxy. While we cannot definitively rule out internal Faraday rotation, we argue that the bulk of the Faraday rotation is taking place in a thin skin that girts the polarised emission. Using minimum energy estimates, we find an implied total magnetic field strength of 4.2 microG.
We present a catalog of Faraday rotation measures (RMs) and redshifts for 4003 extragalactic radio sources detected at 1.4 GHz, derived by identifying optical counterparts and spectroscopic redshifts for linearly polarized radio sources from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey. This catalog is more than an order of magnitude larger than any previous sample of RM vs. redshift, and covers the redshift range 0 < z < 5.3 ; the median redshift of the catalog is z = 0.70, and there are more than 1500 sources at redshifts z > 1. For 3650 of these sources at Galactic latitudes |b| >= 20 degrees, we present a second catalog in which we have corrected for the foreground Faraday rotation of the Milky Way, resulting in an estimate of the residual rotation measure (RRM) that aims to isolate the contribution from extragalactic magnetic fields. We find no significant evolution of RRM with redshift, but observe a strong anti-correlation between RRM and fractional polarization, p, that we argue is the result of beam depolarization from small-scale fluctuations in the foreground magnetic field or electron density. We suggest that the observed variance in RRM and the anti-correlation of RRM with p both require a population of magnetized intervening objects that lie outside the Milky Way but in the foreground to the emitting sources.
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