A new approach to multi-frequency synthesis in radio interferometry

We present a new approach to multi-frequency synthesis in radio astronomy. Using Bayesian inference techniques, the new technique estimates the sky brightness and the spectral index simultaneously. In principle, the bandwidth of a wide-band observation can be fully exploited for sensitivity and resolution, currently only limited by higher order effects like spectral curvature. Employing this new approach, we further present a multi-frequency extension to the imaging algorithm RESOLVE. In simulations, this new algorithm outperforms current multi-frequency imaging techniques like MS-MF-CLEAN.Comment: 13 pages, 5 fugures, submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysic

Modification of cluster radio halo appearance by the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect

We discuss the consequences of the spectral and morphological modification of galaxy cluster radio halos due to the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect for the interpretation of existing and upcoming high frequency radio observations. Likely these modifications have affected the interpretation of the existing Coma cluster radio data. The radio halo emission visible at low (< 5 GHz) frequencies is at higher (> 10 GHz) frequencies completely over-compensated by the thermal SZ decrement. Thus, the total radio emission of a galaxy cluster goes through zero (in comparison to the constant cosmic microwave background (CMB) emission) at a frequency of several GHz. Since the radio halo brightness has a narrow radial profile compared to the SZ decrement, a central emission region is surrounded by a decrement within the intermediate frequency range of several GHz. The size of this emission regions shrinks with increasing frequency until the decrement dominates everywhere in the cluster.Comment: accepted by A&A Letters, 4 pages, 3 figurs, typo correcte

Imprints of magnetic power and helicity spectra on radio polarimetry statistics

Statistical properties of turbulent magnetic fields in radio-synchrotron sources should imprint on the statistics of polarimetric observables. In search of these imprints, we calculate correlation and cross-correlation functions from a set of observables containing the total intensity I, the polarized intensity P and the Faraday depth phi. The correlation functions are evaluated for all combinations of observables up to fourth order in the magnetic field B. We derive these as far as possible analytically and from first principles only using some basic assumptions such as Gaussian statistics of the underlying magnetic field in the observed region and statistical homogeneity. We further assume some simplifications to reduce the complexity of the calculations, as for a start we were interested in a proof of concept. Using this statistical approach, we show that it is in principle possible to gain information about the helical part of the magnetic power spectrum, namely via the correlation functions and . Using this insight, we construct an easy-to-use test for helicity, called LITMUS (Local Inference Test for Magnetic fields which Uncovers heliceS). For now, all calculations are given in a Faraday-free case, but set up in a way so that Faraday rotational effects could be included later on.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures; typos corrected; additional explanations in section 1 and 2; revised and extended derivation in section 5, results unchange

Reviving Fossil Radio Plasma in Clusters of Galaxies by Adiabatic Compression in Environmental Shock Waves

We give for a plasma with a history of several expansion and contraction phases an analytical model of the evolution of a contained relativistic electron population under synchrotron, inverse Compton and adiabatic energy losses or gains. This is applied to different scenarios for evolution of radio plasma inside the cocoons of radio galaxies, after the activity of the central engine has ceased. It is demonstrated that fossil radio plasma with an age of even up to 2 Gyr can be revived by compression in a shock wave of large-scale structure formation, caused during the merging events of galaxy clusters, or by the accretion onto galaxy clusters. We argue, that this is a highly plausible explanation for the observed cluster radio relics, which are the regions of diffuse radio emission found in clusters of galaxies, without any likely parent radio galaxy seen nearby. An implication of this model is the existence of a population of diffuse, ultra-steep spectrum, very low frequency radio sources located inside and possibly outside of clusters of galaxies, tracing the revival of aged fossil radio plasma by the shock waves associated with large-scale structure formation.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, accepted by A&

Cosmic ray confinement in fossil cluster bubbles

Most cool core clusters of galaxies possess active galactic nuclei (AGN) in their centers. These AGN inflate buoyant bubbles containing non-thermal radio emitting particles. If such bubbles efficiently confine cosmic rays (CR) then this could explain ``radio ghosts'' seen far from cluster centers. We simulate the diffusion of cosmic rays from buoyant bubbles inflated by AGN. Our simulations include the effects of the anisotropic particle diffusion introduced by magnetic fields. Our models are consistent with the X-ray morphology of AGN bubbles, with disruption being suppressed by the magnetic draping effect. We conclude that for such magnetic field topologies, a substantial fraction of cosmic rays can be confined inside the bubbles on buoyant rise timescales even when the parallel diffusivity coefficient is very large. For isotropic diffusion at a comparable level, cosmic rays would leak out of the bubbles too rapidly to be consistent with radio observations. Thus, the long confinement times associated with the magnetic suppression of CR diffusion can explain the presence of radio ghosts. We show that the partial escape of cosmic rays is mostly confined to the wake of the rising bubbles, and speculate that this effect could: (1) account for the excitation of the H$\alpha$ filaments trailing behind the bubbles in the Perseus cluster, (2) inject entropy into the metal enriched material being lifted by the bubbles and, thus, help to displace it permanently from the cluster center and (3) produce observable $\gamma$-rays via the interaction of the diffusing cosmic rays with the thermal intracluster medium (ICM).Comment: submitte

On the escape of cosmic rays from radio galaxy cocoons

(Abridged) A model for the escape of CR particles from radio galaxy cocoons is presented here. It is assumed that the radio cocoon is poorly magnetically connected to the environment. An extreme case of this kind is an insulating boundary layer of magnetic fields, which can efficiently suppress particle escape. More likely, magnetic field lines are less organised and allow the transport of CR particles from the source interior to the surface region. For such a scenario two transport regimes are analysed: diffusion of particles along inter-phase magnetic flux tubes (leaving the cocoon) and cross field transport of particles in flux tubes touching the cocoon surface. The cross field diffusion is likely the dominate escape path, unless a significant fraction of the surface is magnetically connected to the environment. Major cluster merger should strongly enhance the particle escape by two complementary mechanisms. i) The merger shock waves shred radio cocoons into filamentary structures, allowing the CRs to easily reach the radio cocoon boundary due to the changed morphology. ii) Also efficient particle losses can be expected for radio cocoons not compressed in shock waves. There, for a short period after the sudden injection of large scale turbulence, the (anomalous) cross field diffusion can be enhanced by several orders of magnitude. This lasts until the turbulent energy cascade has reached the microscopic scales, which determine the value of the microscopic diffusion coefficients.Comment: A&A in press, 12 pages, 5 figures, minor language improvement

Analytical Study on the Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect for Clusters of Galaxies. II. comparison of covariant formalisms

We study a covariant formalism for the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effects developed in the previous papers by the present authors, and derive analytic expressions for the redistribution functions in the Thomson approximation. We also explore another covariant formalism recently developed by Poutanen and Vurm. We show that the two formalisms are mathematically equivalent in the Thomson approximation which is fully valid for the cosmic microwave background photon energies. The present finding will establish a theoretical foundation for the analysis of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effects for the clusters of galaxies.Comment: Accepted version, 7 pages, 1 figure, accepted by Physical Review D for publicatio

Magnetic power spectra from Faraday rotation maps - REALMAF and its use on Hydra A

We develop a novel maximum-a-posteriori method to measure magnetic power spectra from Faraday rotation data and implement it in the REALMAF code. A sophisticated model for the magnetic autocorrelation in real space permits us to alleviate previously required simplifying assumptions in the processing. We also introduce a way to treat the divergence relation of the magnetic field with a multiplicative factor in Fourier space, with which we can model the magnetic autocorrelation as a spherically symmetric function. Applied to the dataset of Hydra A north, we find a power law power spectrum on spatial scales between 0.3 kpc and 8 kpc, with no visible turnover at large scales within this range and a spectral index consistent with a Kolmogorov-like power law regime. The magnetic field strength profile seems to follow the electron density profile with an index alpha=1. A variation of alpha from 0.5 to 1.5 would lead to a spectral index between 1.55 and 2.05. The extrapolated magnetic field strength in the cluster centre highly depends on the assumed projection angle of the jet. For an angle of 45 degree we derive extrapolated 36 muG in the centre and directly probed 16 muG at 50 kpc radius.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, version accepted by A&A with restructured introduction and language improvement