The binary neutron star merger event GW170817 was detected through both electromagnetic radiation and gravitational waves. Its afterglow emission may have been produced by either a narrow ...relativistic jet or an isotropic outflow. High-spatial-resolution measurements of the source size and displacement can discriminate between these scenarios. We present very-long-baseline interferometry observations, performed 207.4 days after the merger by using a global network of 32 radio telescopes. The apparent source size is constrained to be smaller than 2.5 milli-arc seconds at the 90% confidence level. This excludes the isotropic outflow scenario, which would have produced a larger apparent size, indicating that GW170817 produced a structured relativistic jet. Our rate calculations show that at least 10% of neutron star mergers produce such a jet.
Abstract
We present radio and X-ray studies of A3444 and MS1455.0+2232, two galaxy clusters with radio minihalos in their cool cores. A3444 is imaged using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) ...at 333, 607, and 1300 MHz and the Very Large Array at 1435 MHz. Most of the minihalo is contained within
r
< 120 kpc, but a fainter extension, stretching out to 380 kpc southwest of the center, is detected at 607 MHz. Using Chandra, we detect four X-ray sloshing cold fronts: three in the cool core at
r
= 60, 120, and 230 kpc, and a fourth one at
r
= 400 kpc—in the region of the southwestern radio extension—suggesting that the intracluster medium (ICM) is sloshing on a cluster-wide scale. The radio emission is contained within the envelope defined by these fronts. We also analyzed archival 383 MHz GMRT and Chandra observations of MS 1455.0+2232, which exhibits a known minihalo with its bright part delineated by cold fronts inside the cool core, but with a faint extension beyond the core. Similarly to A3444, we find a cold front at
r
∼ 425 kpc, containing the radio emission. Thus the entire diffuse radio emission seen in these clusters appears to be related to large-scale sloshing of the ICM. The radio spectrum of the A3444 minihalo is a power law with a steep index
α
= 1.0 ± 0.1. The spectrum steepens with increasing distance from the center, as expected if the minihalo originates from reacceleration of relativistic particles by the sloshing-induced turbulence in the ICM.
Many galaxy clusters host megaparsec-scale radio halos, generated by ultrarelativistic electrons in the magnetized intracluster medium. The X-ray luminosity and redshift-limited Extended GMRT Radio ...Halo Survey provides a rich and unique dataset for statistical studies of the halos. We uniformly analyze the radio and X-ray data for the GMRT cluster sample, and use the new Planck Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) catalog to revisit the correlations between the power of radio halos and the thermal properties of galaxy clusters. Our bigger and more homogenous sample confirms that the X-ray luminous (L sub(500) > 5 x 10 super(44) erg s super(-1)) clusters branch into two populations-radio halos lie on the correlation, while clusters without radio halos have their radio upper limits well below that correlation. Bimodality of both correlations can be traced to clusters dynamics, with radio halos found exclusively in merging clusters. These results confirm the key role of mergers for the origin of giant radio halos, suggesting that they trigger the relativistic particle acceleration.
Context. Giant radio halos (RH) are diffuse Mpc-scale synchrotron sources detected in some massive and merging galaxy clusters. An unbiased study of the statistical properties of RHs is crucial to ...constraining their origin and evolution. Aims. We investigate the occurrence of RHs and its dependence on the cluster mass in a Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ)-selected sample of galaxy clusters, which is nearly a mass-selected sample. Moreover, we analyse the connection between RHs and merging clusters. Methods. We selected from the Planck SZ catalogue clusters with M > or = 6 x 10 super(14)Mmiddot in circle at z = 0.08-0.33 and we searched for the presence of RHs using the NVSS for z < 0.2 and the GMRT RH survey (GRHS) and its extension (EGRHS) for 0.2 < z < 0.33. We used archival Chandra X-ray data to derive information on the dynamical status of the clusters. Results. We confirm that RH clusters are merging systems while the majority of clusters without RH are relaxed, thus supporting the idea that mergers play a fundamental role in the generation of RHs. We find evidence for an increase in the fraction of clusters with RHs with the cluster mass and this is in line with expectations derived on the basis of the turbulence re-acceleration scenario. Finally, we discuss the effect of the incompleteness of our sample on this result.
Golovich et al. present an optical imaging and spectroscopic survey of 29 radio relic merging galaxy clusters. In this paper, we study this survey to identify substructure and quantify the dynamics ...of the mergers. Using a combined photometric and spectroscopic approach, we identify the minimum number of substructures in each system to describe the galaxy populations and estimate the line-of-sight velocity difference between likely merging subclusters. We find that the line-of-sight velocity components of the mergers are typically small compared with the maximum 3D relative velocity (usually <1000 km s−1 and often consistent with zero). We also compare our systems to n-body simulation analogs and estimate the viewing angle of the clean mergers in our ensemble. We find that the median system's separation vector lies within 40° (17°) at a 90% (50%) confidence level. This suggests that the merger axes of these systems are generally in or near the plane of the sky, matching findings in magnetohydrodynamical simulations. In 28 of the 29 systems we identify substructures in the galaxy population aligned with the radio relic(s) and presumed associated merger-induced shock. From this ensemble, we identify eight systems to include in a "gold" sample that is prime for further observation, modeling, and simulation study. Additional papers will present weak-lensing mass maps and dynamical modeling for each merging system, ultimately leading to new insight into a wide range of astrophysical phenomena at some of the largest scales in the universe.
The Extended GMRT Radio Halo Survey Kale, R; Venturi, T; Giacintucci, S ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
7/2015, Volume:
579
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The intra-cluster medium contains cosmic rays and magnetic fields that are manifested through the large scale synchrotron sources, termed radio haloes, relics, and mini-haloes. The Extended Giant ...Metre-wave Radio Telescope (GMRT) Radio Halo Survey (EGRHS) is an extension of the GMRT Radio Halo Survey (GRHS) designed to search for radio haloes using GMRT 610/235 MHz observations. A new mini-halo in RX J2129.6+0005 and candidate diffuse sources in Z5247, A2552, and Z1953 have been discovered. A unique feature of this survey are the upper limits on the detections of 1 Mpc sized radio haloes; 4 new are presented here, making a total of 31 in the survey. Of the sample, 58 clusters with adequately sensitive radio information were used to obtain the most accurate occurrence fractions so far. The occurrence fractions of radio haloes, mini-haloes and relics in our sample are ~22%, ~16% and ~5%, respectively.
The frequently observed association between giant radio halos (RHs) and merging galaxy clusters has driven present theoretical models of non-thermal emission from galaxy clusters, which are based on ...the idea that the energy dissipated during cluster-cluster mergers could power the formation of RHs. To quantitatively test the merger-halo connection, we present the first statistical study based on deep radio data and X-ray observations of a complete X-ray-selected sample of galaxy clusters with X-ray luminosity {>=}5 x 10{sup 44} erg s{sup -1} and redshift 0.2 {<=} z {<=} 0.32. Using several methods to characterize cluster substructures, namely, the power ratios, centroid shift, and X-ray brightness concentration parameter, we show that clusters with and without RH can be quantitatively differentiated in terms of their dynamical properties. In particular, we confirm that RHs are associated with dynamically disturbed clusters and clusters without RH are more 'relaxed', with only a couple of exceptions where a disturbed cluster does not exhibit a halo.
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 ~50′ or ~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 〈
J
〉
1 GHz
< 1.2 × 10
−44
W Hz
−1
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 ≈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.
Abstract
Radio haloes and radio relics are diffuse synchrotron sources that extend over Mpc-scales and are found in a number of merger galaxy clusters. They are believed to form as a consequence of ...the energy that is dissipated by turbulence and shocks in the intracluster medium (ICM). However, the precise physical processes that generate these steep synchrotron spectrum sources are still poorly constrained. We present a new LOFAR observation of the double galaxy cluster Abell 1758. This system is composed of A1758N, a massive cluster hosting a known giant radio halo, and A1758S, which is a less massive cluster whose diffuse radio emission is confirmed here for the first time. Our observations have revealed a radio halo and a candidate radio relic in A1758S, and a suggestion of emission along the bridge connecting the two systems which deserves confirmation. We combined the LOFAR data with archival VLA and GMRT observations to constrain the spectral properties of the diffuse emission. We also analysed a deep archival Chandra observation and used this to provide evidence that A1758N and A1758S are in a pre-merger phase. The ICM temperature across the bridge that connects the two systems shows a jump which might indicate the presence of a transversal shock generated in the initial stage of the merger.
ABSTRACT
We aim to carry out a radio study of the SoUthern Cluster sCale Extended Source Survey (SUCCESS) sample consisting of 20 massive (M500 > 5 × 1014 M⊙), nearby (redshift <0.3) and southern ...(−50° < δ < −30°) galaxy clusters detected by the Planck satellite and the South Pole Telescope. Here, we report targeted GMRT observations (325/610 MHz) for a subsample of nine clusters. We also use the first data release of MeerKAT Galaxy Cluster Legacy Survey (1283 MHz) for five of these nine clusters. The properties of the mini-halo in RXC J0528.9-3927, a candidate mini-halo in A3322, the radio halo and candidate double relics in A3399, and the radio halo in RXC J0232.2-4420 are presented. We also report a detection of candidate radio relics at distances 1 and 1.9 Mpc from the centre of RXC J0232.2-4420. The southeast relic of A3399 is consistent with the radio power–mass scaling relation for radio relics, while the candidate relics around RXC J0232.2-4420 are outliers. This indicates an origin of the candidate relics near RXC J0232.2-4420 to be independent of this cluster and a cluster merger-shock origin for the relic in A3399. In this subsample of clusters, 1/9 hosts a radio halo and double relics, 1/9 hosts a radio halo and 2/9 host mini-haloes. The dynamical states based on X-ray morphology show that A3399 is a disturbed cluster; however, the radio halo cluster RXC J0232.2-4420 is relaxed, and the mini-halo clusters have intermediate morphologies, adding to the cases of the less commonly found associations.
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