No Arabic abstract
In this paper we present a detailed study of the radio galaxy J1324-3138, located at a projected distance of 2 arcmin from the centre of the Abell cluster of galaxies A3556, belonging to the core of the Shapley Concentration, at an average redshift z=0.05. We have observed J1324-3138 over a wide range of frequencies: at 327 MHz (VLA), at 843 MHz (MOST), and at 1376 MHz, 2382 MHz, 4790 MHz and 8640 MHz (ATCA). Our analysis suggests that J1324-3138 is a remnant of a tailed radio galaxy, in which the nuclear engine has switched off and the radio source is now at a late stage of its evolution, confined by the intracluster gas. The radio galaxy is not in pressure equilibrium with the external medium, as it is often found for extended radio sources in clusters of galaxies. We favour the hypothesis that the lack of observed polarised radio emission in the source is due to Faraday rotation by a foreground screen, i.e. the source is seen through a dense cluster gas, characterised by a random magnetic field. An implication of the head-tail nature of the source is that J1324-3138 is moving away from the core of A3556 and that possibly a major merging event between the core of A3556 and the subgroup hosting J1324-3138 has already taken place.
We present here the first results of a 22cm survey of the Shapley Concentration core. The observations were carried out with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. Our radio observations completely and uniformely cover the A3558 complex, allowing a thorough multifrequency study, by comparison of our results with the available optical spectroscopic and X-ray data of the whole chain. We will present here some statistical results of our survey and compare them with the information on the dynamics of the chain and on the properties of the intracluster gas. Attention will also be devoted to the extended radio galaxies found in our survey.
We present the results of a 22 cm radio survey carried out with the A3558 complex, a chain formed by the merging ACO clusters A3556-A3558-A3562 and thetwo groups SC1327-312 and SC1323-313, located in the central region of the complex, a chain formed by the merging ACO clusters A3556-A3558-A3562 and the two groups SC1327-312 and SC1323-313, located in the central region of the Shapley Concentration. The purpose of our survey is to study the effects of cluster mergers on the statistical properties of radio galaxies and to investigate the connection between mergers and the presence of radio halos and relic sources. We found that the radio source counts in the A3558 complex are consistent with the background source counts. Furthermore, we found that no correlation exists between the local density and the radio source power, and that steep spectrum radio galaxies are not segregated in denser optical regions. The radio luminosity function for elliptical and S0 galaxies is significantly lower than that for cluster type galaxies and for those not selected to be in clusters at radio powers logP(1.4) > 22.5, implying that the probability of a galaxy becoming a radio source above this power limit is lower in the Shapley Concentration compared with any other environment. The detection of a head-tail source in the centre of A3562, coupled with careful inspection of the 20 cm NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) and of 36 cm MOST observations, allowed us to spot two extended sources in the region between A3562 and SC1329-313, i.e. a candidate radio halo at the centre of A3562, and low brightness extended emission around a 14.96 magnitude Shapley galaxy.
We examine the possible acceleration mechanisms of the relativistic particles responsible for the extended radio emission in Abell 520. We used new LOFAR 145 MHz, archival GMRT 323 MHz and VLA 1.5 GHz data to study the morphological and spectral properties of extended cluster emission. The observational properties are discussed in the framework of particle acceleration models associated with cluster merger turbulence and shocks. In Abell 520, we confirm the presence of extended synchrotron radio emission that has been classified as a radio halo. The comparison between the radio and X-ray brightness suggests that the halo might originate in a cocoon rather than from the central X-ray bright regions of the cluster. The halo spectrum is roughly uniform on the scale of 66 kpc. There is a hint of spectral steepening from the SW edge towards the cluster centre. Assuming DSA, the radio data are suggestive of a shock of $mathcal{M}_{SW}=2.6_{-0.2}^{+0.3}$ that is consistent with the X-ray derived estimates. This is in line with the scenario in which relativistic electrons in the SW radio edge gain their energies at the shock front via acceleration of either thermal or fossil electrons. We do not detect extended radio emission ahead of the SW shock that is predicted if the emission is the result of adiabatic compression. An X-ray surface brightness discontinuity is detected towards the NE region that may be a counter shock of $mathcal{M}_{NE}^{X}=1.52pm0.05$. This is lower than the value predicted from the radio emission ($mathcal{M}_{NE}=2.1pm0.2$). Our observations indicate that the SW radio emission in Abell 520 is likely effected by the prominent X-ray detected shock in which radio emitting particles are (re-)accelerated through the Fermi-I mechanism. The NE X-ray discontinuity that is approximately collocated with an edge in the radio emission hints at the presence of a counter shock.
The pre-merging system of galaxy clusters Abell 3391-Abell 3395 located at a mean redshift of 0.053 has been observed at 1 GHz in an ASKAP/EMU Early Science observation as well as in X-rays with eROSITA. The projected separation of the X-ray peaks of the two clusters is $sim$50$$ or $sim$ 3.1 Mpc. Here we present an inventory of interesting radio sources in this field around this cluster merger. While the eROSITA observations provide clear indications of a bridge of thermal gas between the clusters, neither ASKAP nor MWA observations show any diffuse radio emission coinciding with the X-ray bridge. We derive an upper limit on the radio emissivity in the bridge region of $langle J rangle_{1,{rm GHz}}< 1.2 times 10^{-44} {rm W}, {rm Hz}^{-1} {rm m}^{-3}$. A non-detection of diffuse radio emission in the X-ray bridge between these two clusters has implications for particle-acceleration mechanisms in cosmological large-scale structure. We also report extended or otherwise noteworthy radio sources in the 30 deg$^2$ field around Abell 3391-Abell 3395. We identified 20 Giant Radio Galaxies, plus 7 candidates, with linear projected sizes greater than 1 Mpc. The sky density of field radio galaxies with largest linear sizes of $>0.7$ Mpc is $approx 1.7$ deg$^{-2}$, three times higher than previously reported. We find no evidence for a cosmological evolution of the population of Giant Radio Galaxies. Moreover, we find seven candidates for cluster radio relics and radio halos.
The Shapley Concentration ($zapprox0.048$) covers several degrees in the Southern Hemisphere, and includes galaxy clusters in advanced evolutionary stage, groups of clusters in the early stages of merger, fairly massive clusters with ongoing accretion activity, and smaller groups located in filaments in the regions between the main clusters. With the goal to investigate the role of cluster mergers and accretion on the radio galaxy population, we performed a multi-wavelength study of the BCGs and of the galaxies showing extended radio emission in the cluster complexes of Abell 3528 and Abell 3558. Our study is based on a sample of 12 galaxies. We observed the clusters with the GMRT at 235, 325 and 610 MHz, and with the VLA at 8.46 GHz. We complemented our study with the TGSS at 150 MHz, the SUMSS at 843 MHz and ATCA at 1380, 1400, 2380, and 4790 MHz data. Optical imaging with ESO-VST and mid-IR coverage with WISE are also available for the host galaxies. We found deep differences in the properties of the radio emission of the BCGs in the two cluster complexes. The BCGs in the A3528 complex and in A3556, which are relaxed cool-core objects, are powerful active radio galaxies. They also present hints of restarted activity. On the contrary, the BCGs in A3558 and A3562, which are well known merging systems, are very faint, or quiet, in the radio band. The optical and IR properties of the galaxies are fairly similar in the two complexes, showing all passive red galaxies. Our study shows remarkable differences in the radio properties of the BGCs, which we relate to the different dynamical state of the host cluster. On the contrary, the lack of changes between such different environments in the optical band suggests that the dynamical state of galaxy clusters does not affect the optical counterparts of the radio galaxies, at least over the life-time of the radio emission.