47,592 research outputs found
J0041+3224: a new double-double radio galaxy
We report the discovery of a double-double radio galaxy (DDRG), J0041+3224,
with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and subsequent high-frequency
observations with the Very Large Array (VLA). The inner and outer doubles are
aligned within about 4 deg and are reasonably collinear with the parent optical
galaxy. The outer double has a steeper radio spectrum compared with the inner
one. Using an estimated redshift of 0.45, the projected linear sizes of the
outer and inner doubles are 969 and 171 kpc respectively. The time scale of
interruption of jet activity has been estimated to be about 20 Myr, similar to
other known DDRGs. We have compiled a sample of known DDRGs, and have
re-examined the inverse correlation between the ratio of the luminosities of
the outer to the inner double and the size of the inner double, l_{in}. Unlike
the other DDRGs with l_{in} larger than about 50 kpc, the inner double of
J0041+3224 is marginally more luminous than the outer one. The two DDRGs with
l_{in} less than about a few kpc have a more luminous inner double than the
outer one, possibly due to a higher efficiency of conversion of beam energy as
the jets propagate through the dense interstellar medium. We have examined the
symmetry parameters and find that the inner doubles appear to be more
asymmetric in both its armlength and flux density ratios compared with the
outer doubles, although they appear marginally more collinear with the core
than the outer double. We discuss briefly possible implications of these
trends.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 9 pages, 10 figure
A Search for the Most Massive Galaxies. II. Structure, Environment and Formation
We study a sample of 43 early-type galaxies, selected from the SDSS because
they appeared to have velocity dispersion > 350 km/s. High-resolution
photometry in the SDSS i passband using HRC-ACS on board the HST shows that
just less than half of the sample is made up of superpositions of two or three
galaxies, so the reported velocity dispersion is incorrect. The other half of
the sample is made up of single objects with genuinely large velocity
dispersions. None of these objects has sigma larger than 426 +- 30 km/s. These
objects define rather different relations than the bulk of the early-type
galaxy population: for their luminosities, they are the smallest, most massive
and densest galaxies in the Universe. Although the slopes of the scaling
relations they define are rather different from those of the bulk of the
population, they lie approximately parallel to those of the bulk "at fixed
sigma". These objects appear to be of two distinct types: the less luminous
(M_r>-23) objects are rather flattened and extremely dense for their
luminosities -- their properties suggest some amount of rotational support and
merger histories with abnormally large amounts of gaseous dissipation. The more
luminous objects (M_r<-23) tend to be round and to lie in or at the centers of
clusters. Their properties are consistent with the hypothesis that they are
BCGs. Models in which BCGs form from predominantly radial mergers having little
angular momentum predict that they should be prolate. If viewed along the major
axis, such objects would appear to have abnormally large sigma for their sizes,
and to be abnormally round for their luminosities. This is true of the objects
in our sample once we account for the fact that the most luminous galaxies
(M_r<-23.5), and BCGs, become slightly less round with increasing luminosity.Comment: 21 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Adaptive Optics Imaging of QSOs with Double-Peaked Narrow Lines: Are they Dual AGNs?
Active galaxies hosting two accreting and merging super-massive black holes
(SMBHs) -- dual Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) -- are predicted by many current
and popular models of black hole-galaxy co-evolution. We present here the
results of a program that has identified a set of probable dual AGN candidates
based on near Infra-red (NIR) Laser Guide-Star Adaptive Optics (LGS AO) imaging
with the Keck II telescope. These candidates are selected from a complete
sample of radio-quiet Quasi-stellar Objects (QSOs) drawn from the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey (SDSS), which show double-peaked narrow AGN emission lines. Of the
twelve AGNs imaged, we find six with double galaxy structure, of which four are
in galaxy mergers. We measure the ionization of the two velocity components in
the narrow AGN lines to test the hypothesis that both velocity components come
from an active nucleus. The combination of a well-defined parent sample and
high-quality imaging allows us to place constraints on the fraction of SDSS
QSOs that host dual accreting black holes separated on kiloparsec (kpc) scales:
~0.3%-0.65%. We derive from this fraction the time spent in a QSO phase during
a typical merger and find a value that is much lower than estimates that arise
from QSO space densities and galaxy merger statistics. We discuss possible
reasons for this difference. Finally, we compare the SMBH mass distributions of
single and dual AGN and find little difference between the two within the
limited statistics of our program, hinting that most SMBH growth happens in the
later stages of a merger process.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; accepted to the Astrophysical Journa
Tale of J1328+2752 : a misaligned double-double radio galaxy hosted by a binary black-hole?
We present a radio and optical study of the double-double radio galaxy J1328+2752 based on new low-frequency Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope observations and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data. The radio data were used to investigate the morphology and to perform a spectral index analysis. In this source, we find that the inner double is misaligned by similar to 30 degrees from the axis of the outer diffuse structure. The SDSS spectrum shows that the central component has double-peaked line profiles with different emission strengths. The average velocity offset of the two components is 235 +/- 10.5 kms(-1). The misaligned radio morphology along with the double-peaked emission lines indicate that this source is a potential candidate binary supermassive black hole. This study further supports mergers as a possible explanation for repeated jet activity in radio sources
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