A comprehensive study of the radio properties of brightest cluster galaxies

Hogan, M.T.; Edge, A.C.; Hlavacek-Larrondo, J.; Grainge, K.J.B.; Hamer, S.L.; Mahony, E.K.; Russell, H.R.; Fabian, A.C.; McNamara, B.R.; Wilman, R.J.

Abstract

We examine the radio properties of the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in a large sample of X-ray selected galaxy clusters comprising the Brightest Cluster Sample (BCS), the extended BCS and ROSAT-ESO Flux Limited X-ray cluster catalogues. We have multifrequency radio observations of the BCG using a variety of data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array, Jansky Very Large Array and Very Long Baseline Array telescopes. The radio spectral energy distributions of these objects are decomposed into a component attributed to on-going accretion by the active galactic nuclei (AGN) that we refer to as ‘the core’, and a more diffuse, ageing component we refer to as the ‘non-core’. These BCGs are matched to previous studies to determine whether they exhibit emission lines (principally Hα), indicative of the presence of a strong cooling cluster core. We consider how the radio properties of the BCGs vary with cluster environmental factors. Line emitting BCGs are shown to generally host more powerful radio sources, exhibiting the presence of a strong, distinguishable core component in about 60 per cent of cases. This core component more strongly correlates with the BCG's [O III] 5007 Å line emission. For BCGs in line emitting clusters, the X-ray cavity power correlates with both the extended and core radio emission, suggestive of steady fuelling of the AGN over bubble-rise time-scales in these clusters.

Citation

Hogan, M., Edge, A., Hlavacek-Larrondo, J., Grainge, K., Hamer, S., Mahony, E., …Wilman, R. (2015). A comprehensive study of the radio properties of brightest cluster galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 453(2), 1201-1222. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1517

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 7, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Aug 24, 2015
• Publication Date: Oct 21, 2015
• Deposit Date: Oct 28, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 4, 2015
• 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: 453
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 1201-1222
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1517
• Keywords: Galaxies: clusters: general, Galaxies: jets, Radio continuum: galaxies.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1398854
• Related Public URLs: https://arxiv.org/abs/1507.03019