Radio Galaxy Zoo: New Giant Radio Galaxies in the RGZ DR1catalogue

In this paper, we present the identification of five previously unknown giant radio galaxies (GRGs) using Data Release 1 of the Radio Galaxy Zoo citizen science project and a selection method appropriate to the training and validation of deep learning algorithms for new radio surveys. We associate one of these new GRGs with the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) in the galaxy cluster GMBCG J251.67741+36.45295 and use literature data to identify a further 13 previously known GRGs as BCG candidates, increasing the number of known BCG GRGs by >60%. By examining local galaxy number densities for the number of all known BCG GRGs, we suggest that the existence of this growing number implies that GRGs are able to reside in the centers of rich ($\sim 10^{14}$ M$_{\odot}$) galaxy clusters and challenges the hypothesis that GRGs grow to such sizes only in locally under-dense environments

Radio observations of the merging galaxy cluster system Abell 3391-Abell 3395

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 $\sim$50$'$ or $\sim$ 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 $\langle J \rangle_{1\,{\rm GHz}}< 1.2 \times 10^{-44} {\rm W}\, {\rm Hz}^{-1} {\rm m}^{-3}$. 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 $\approx 1.7$ 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.Comment: Astronomy & Astrophysics, in pres

Radio Galaxy Zoo: discovery of a poor cluster through a giant wide-angle tail radio galaxy

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2016 J. K. Banfield, H. Andernach, A. D. Kapińska, L. Rudnick, M. J. Hardcastle, G. Cotter, S. Vaughan, T. W. Jones, I. Heywood, J. D. Wing, O. I. Wong, T. Matorny, I. A. Terentev, Á. R. López-Sánchez, R. P. Norris, N. Seymour, S. S. Shabala, and K. W. Willett. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. The version of record is available on line at doi: 10.1093/mnras/stw1067We have discovered a previously unreported poor cluster of galaxies (RGZ-CL J0823.2+0333) through an unusual giant wide-angle tail radio galaxy found in the Radio Galaxy Zoo project. We obtained a spectroscopic redshift of $z=0.0897$ for the E0-type host galaxy, 2MASX J08231289+0333016, leading to M$_r = -22.6$ and a $1.4\,$GHz radio luminosity density of $L_{\rm 1.4} = 5.5\times10^{24}$ W Hz$^{-1}$. These radio and optical luminosities are typical for wide-angle tailed radio galaxies near the borderline between Fanaroff-Riley (FR) classes I and II. The projected largest angular size of $\approx8\,$arcmin corresponds to $800\,$kpc and the full length of the source along the curved jets/trails is $1.1\,$Mpc in projection. X-ray data from the XMM-Newton archive yield an upper limit on the X-ray luminosity of the thermal emission surrounding RGZ J082312.9+033301,at $1.2-2.6\times10^{43}$ erg s$^{-1}$ for assumed intra-cluster medium temperatures of $1.0-5.0\,$keV. Our analysis of the environment surrounding RGZ J082312.9+033301 indicates that RGZ J082312.9+033301 lies within a poor cluster. The observed radio morphology suggests that (a) the host galaxy is moving at a significant velocity with respect to an ambient medium like that of at least a poor cluster, and that (b) the source may have had two ignition events of the active galactic nucleus with $10^7\,$yrs in between. This reinforces the idea that an association between RGZ J082312.9+033301, and the newly discovered poor cluster exists.Peer reviewe

FLASH early science - Discovery of an intervening H I 21-cm absorber from an ASKAP survey of the GAMA 23 field

© 2020 The Author(s) We present early science results from the First Large Absorption Survey in H I (FLASH), a spectroscopically blind survey for 21-cm absorption lines in cold hydrogen (H I) gas at cosmological distances using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). We have searched for H I absorption towards 1253 radio sources in the GAMA 23 field, covering redshifts between z = 0.34 and 0.79 over a sky area of approximately 50 deg2. In a purely blind search, we did not obtain any detections of 21-cm absorbers above our reliability threshold. Assuming a fiducial value for the H I spin temperature of Tspin = 100 K and source covering fraction cf = 1, the total comoving absorption path-length sensitive to all Damped Lyman α Absorbers (DLAs; NH I ≥ 2 × 1020 cm−2) is ΔX = 6.6 ± 0.3 (Δz = 3.7 ± 0.2) and super-DLAs (NH I ≥ 2 × 1021 cm−2) is ΔX = 111 ± 6 (Δz= 63 ± 3). We estimate upper limits on the H I column density frequency distribution function that are consistent with measurements from prior surveys for redshifted optical DLAs, and nearby 21-cm emission and absorption. By cross-matching our sample of radio sources with optical spectroscopic identifications of galaxies in the GAMA 23 field, we were able to detect 21-cm absorption at z = 0.3562 towards NVSS J224500−343030, with a column density of NH I = (1.2 ± 0.1) × 1020 (Tspin/100 K) cm−2. The absorber is associated with GAMA J22450.05−343031.7, a massive early-type galaxy at an impact parameter of 17 kpc with respect to the radio source and which may contain a massive (MH I ≿ 3 × 109 M☉) gas disc. Such gas-rich early types are rare, but have been detected in the nearby Universe

Limits of noise and confusion in the MWA GLEAM year 1 survey

T.M.O. Franzen, C.A. Jackson, J.R. Callingham, R.D. Ekers, P.J. Hancock, N. Hurley-Walker, J. Morgan, N. Seymour, R.B. Wayth, S.V. White, M.E. Bell, K.S. Dwarakanath, B.Q. For, B.M. Gaensler, L. Hindson, M. Johnston-Hollitt, A.D. Kapinska, E. Lenc, B. McKinley, A.R. Offringa, P. Procopio, L. Staveley-Smith, C. Wu, Q. Zheng, ‘Limits of noise and confusion in the MWA GLEAM year 1 survey’, paper presented at the The Many Facests of Extragalactiv Radio Surveys: Towards New Scientific Challenges, Bologna, Italy, 20-23 October, 2015.The GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky MWA survey (GLEAM) is a new relatively low resolution, contiguous 72-231 MHz survey of the entire sky south of declination +25 deg. In this paper, we outline one approach to determine the relative contribution of system noise, classical confusion and sidelobe confusion in GLEAM images. An understanding of the noise and confusion properties of GLEAM is essential if we are to fully exploit GLEAM data and improve the design of future low-frequency surveys. Our early results indicate that sidelobe confusion dominates over the entire frequency range, implying that enhancements in data processing have the potential to further reduce the noise.Non peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The Abell 3391/95 galaxy cluster system:A 15 Mpc intergalactic medium emission filament, a warm gas bridge, infalling matter clumps, and (re-) accelerated plasma discovered by combining SRG/eROSITA data with ASKAP/EMU and DECam data

We used dedicated SRG/eROSITA X-ray, ASKAP/EMU radio, and DECam optical observations of a 15 sq.deg region around the interacting galaxy cluster system A3391/95 to study the warm-hot gas in cluster outskirts and filaments, the surrounding large-scale structure and its formation process. We relate the observations to expectations from cosmological hydrodynamic simulations from the Magneticum suite. We trace the irregular morphology of warm-hot gas of the main clusters from their centers out to well beyond their characteristic radii, $r_{200}$. Between the two main cluster systems, we observe an emission bridge; thanks to eROSITA's unique soft response and large field of view, we discover tantalizing hints for warm gas. Several matter clumps physically surrounding the system are detected. For the "Northern Clump," we provide evidence that it is falling towards A3391 from the hot gas morphology and radio lobe structure of its central AGN. Many of the extended sources in the field detected by eROSITA are known clusters or new clusters in the background, including a known SZ cluster at redshift z=1. We discover an emission filament north of the virial radius, $r_{100}$, of A3391 connecting to the Northern Clump and extending south of A3395 towards another galaxy cluster. The total projected length of this continuous warm-hot emission filament is 15 Mpc, running almost 4 degrees across the entire eROSITA observation. The DECam galaxy density map shows galaxy overdensities in the same regions. The new datasets provide impressive confirmation of the theoretically expected structure formation processes on the individual system level, including the surrounding warm-hot intergalactic medium distribution compared to the Magneticum simulation. Our spatially resolved findings show that baryons indeed reside in large-scale warm-hot gas filaments with a clumpy structure.Comment: 21 pages plus 16 figures in the main text and 13 pages plus 29 figures as appendix. Astronomy & Astrophysics, accepted on November 3, 2020. A press release, full resolution images plus additional images and movies are available at https://astro.uni-bonn.de/~reiprich/A3391_95

The MWA GLEAM 4Jy Sample; a new large, bright radio source sample at 151 MHz

C.A. Jackson, T.M.O. Franzen, N. Seymour, S.V. White, Tara Murphy, E.M. Sadler, J.R. Callingham, R.W. Hunstead, J. Hughes, J.V. Wall, M.E. Bell, K.S. Dwarakanath, B.Q. For, B.M. Gaensler, P.J. Hancock, L, Hindson, N. Hurley-Walker, M. Johnston-Hollitt, A.D. Kapinska, E. Lenc, B. McKinley, J. Morgan, A.R. Offringa, P. Procopio, L. Staveley-Smith, R.B. Wayth, C. Wu, Q. Zheng, ‘The MWA GLEAM 4Jy Sample; a new large, bright radio source sample at 151 MHz’, paper presented at The Many Facests of Extragalactiv Radio Surveys: Towards New Scientific Challenges, Bologna, Italy, 20-23 October, 2015.This paper outlines how the new GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky MWA Survey (GLEAM, Wayth et al. 2015), observed by the Murchison Widefield Array covering the frequency range 72 - 231 MHz, allows identification of a new large, complete, sample of more than 2000 bright extragalactic radio sources selected at 151 MHz. With a flux density limit of 4 Jy this sample is significantly larger than the canonical fully-complete sample, 3CRR (Laing, Riley & Longair 1983). In analysing this small bright subset of the GLEAM survey we are also providing a first user check of the GLEAM catalogue ahead of its public release (Hurley-Walker et al. in prep). Whilst significant work remains to fully characterise our new bright source sample, in time it will provide important constraints to evolutionary behaviour, across a wide redshift and intrinsic radio power range, as well as being highly complementary to results from targeted, small area surveys.Non peer reviewe

A multifrequency radio continuum study of the Magellanic Clouds - I. Overall structure and star formation rates

We present the first low-frequency Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio continuum maps of the Magellanic Clouds (MCs), usingmosaics from the GaLactic Extragalactic All-SkyMWA (GLEAM) survey. In this paper, we discuss the overall radio continuum morphology between 76 and 227 MHz and compare them with neutral hydrogen maps, 1.4 GHz continuum maps and optical images. Variation of diffuse emission is noticeable across the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) but absent across the bar of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We also measure the integrated flux densities and derive the spectral indices for the MCs. A double power-law model with fixed a1 = -0.1 fit between 19.7 MHz and 8.55 GHz yields a0 = -0.66 ± 0.08 for the LMC. A power-law model yields a8.55GHz85.5MHz = -0.82 ± 0.03 for the SMC. The radio spectral index maps reveal distinctive flat and steep spectral indices for the HII regions and supernova remnants, respectively. We find strong correlation between HII regions and Ha emission. Using a new 150 MHz-Ha relation as a star formation rate indicator, we estimate global star formation rates of 0.068-0.161 M? yr-1 and 0.021-0.050 M? yr-1 for the LMC and SMC, respectively. Images in 20 frequency bands, and wideband averages are made available via the GLEAM virtual observatory server