First X-ray observations of Low-Power Compact Steep Spectrum Sources

We report first X-ray Chandra observations of a sample of seven low luminosity compact (LLC) sources. They belong to a class of young compact steep spectrum (CSS) radio sources. Four of them have been detected, the other three have upper limit estimations for X-ray flux, one CSS galaxy is associated with an X-ray cluster. We have used the new observations together with the observational data for known strong CSS and gigahertz-peaked spectrum (GPS) objects and large scale FRIs and FRIIs to study the relation between morphology, X-ray properties and excitation modes in radio-loud AGNs. We found that: (1) The low power objects fit well to the already established X-ray - radio luminosity correlation for AGNs and occupy the space among, weaker in the X-rays, FRI objects. (2) The high excitation galaxies (HEG) and low excitation galaxies (LEG) occupy distinct locus in the radio/X-ray luminosity plane, notwithstanding their evolutionary stage. This is in agreement with the postulated different origin of the X-ray emission in these two group of objects. (3) We have tested the AGN evolution models by comparing the radio/X-ray luminosity ratio with the size of the sources, and indirectly, with their age. We conclude that the division for two different X-ray emission modes, namely originate in the base of the relativistic jet (FRIs) or in the accretion disk (FRIIs) is already present among the younger compact AGNs. (4) Finally, we found that the CSS sources are less obscured than the more compact GPSs in X-rays. However, the anti-correlation between X-ray column density and radio size does not hold for the whole sample of GPS and CSS objects.

Emission line - radio correlation for Low Luminosity Compact sources. Evolution schemes

We present radio and optical analysis of a sample of Low Luminosity Compact (LLC) objects, selected from FIRST survey and observed with MERLIN at L-band and C-band. The main criterion used for selection was luminosity of the objects and approximately one third of the CSS sources from the new sample have a value of radio luminosity comparable to FR,Is.The analysis of a radio properties of LLC sources show they occupy the space in radio power versus linear size diagram below the main evolutionary path of radio objects. We suggest that many of them might be short-lived objects, and their radio emission may be disrupted several times before becoming FR,IIs. The optical analysis of the LLC sources were made based on the available SDSS images and spectra. We have classified the sources as high and low excitation galaxies (HEG and LEG, respectively). The optical and radio properties of the LLC sample are in general consistent with brighter CSSs and large-scale radio sources. However, when LLC are added to the other samples, HEG and LEG seem to follow independent, parallel evolutionary tracks. LLC and luminous CSS behave like FR,II sources, while FR,I seem to belong to a different group of objects, concerning ionization mechanisms. Based on our results, we propose the independent, parallel evolutionary tracks for HEG and LEG sources, evolving from GPS - CSS - FR.