A search for Centaurus A-like features in the spectra of Fermi-LAT detected radio galaxies

Rulten, Cameron B; Brown, Anthony M; Chadwick, Paula M

Abstract

Motivated by the detection of a hardening in the γ-ray spectrum of the radio galaxy CentaurusA, we have analysed ∼10 years of Fermi-LAT observations of 26 radio galaxies to search for similar spectral features. We find that the majority of the radio galaxies’ γ-ray spectral energy distributions are best fitted with a simple power-law model, and no spectral hardening similar to that found in CentaurusA was detected. We show that, had there been any such spectral features present in our sample of radio galaxies, they would have been seen, but note that 7 of the radio galaxies (3C111, 3C120, 3C264, IC4516, NGC1218, NGC2892 and PKS0625-35) show evidence for flux variability on 6-month timescales, which makes the detection of any steady spectral features difficult. We find a strong positive correlation (r = 0.9) between the core radio power at 5GHz and the γ-ray luminosity and, using a simple extrapolation to TeV energies, we expect around half of the radio galaxies studied will be detectable with the forthcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array.

Citation

Rulten, C. B., Brown, A. M., & Chadwick, P. M. (2020). A search for Centaurus A-like features in the spectra of Fermi-LAT detected radio galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 492(2), 4666-4679. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa054

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 3, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jan 9, 2020
• Publication Date: Mar 31, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jan 10, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 10, 2020
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Print ISSN: 0035-8711
• Electronic ISSN: 1365-2966
• Publisher: Royal Astronomical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 492
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 4666-4679
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa054
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1279421