1,005 research outputs found

    Extragalactic sources with one-sided radio structure

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    A list has been compiled of 49 extragalactic sources, most of them identified with quasars, that appear to have a one-sided (D2 type) radio structure characterized by a single outer component displaced from a compact central (nuclear) component coincident with the optical object. The observed properties of a subsample of 28 D2 quasars that have an overall angular size larger than 5 arcsec are briefly discussed and compared with those of normal (Dl type) double quasars. It is found that the central components in most D2 sources account for more than half the total flux density at high frequencies in contrast to the Dl quasars which generally have less than 20 per cent of their total flux density in a central component. This makes it very unlikely that D2 sources are just those Dls in which there is a large intrinsic difference in the flux densities or separations of the two outer components. The observed properties of D2 sources are easier to understand in the relativistic beaming interpretation in which their axes are inclined at smaller angles with the line of sight compared to Dl sources

    The radio structure of 45 quasars at z < 1.5

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    Radio maps at 5 GHz with an angular resolution of 1 to 2 arcsec and a dynamic range ≳200:1 are presented for a sample of 45 radio quasars at redshifts between 0.2 and 1.5. The sources were imaged from observations made with the Very Large Array with the aim of investigating the epoch dependence of misalignments and asymmetries in their extended radio structure. Maps of some of the larger radio sources are presented also at a frequency of 1.5 GHz with a typical angular resolution of ~4 arcsec. The radio structure of most of the quasars reported here has been delineated in considerably greater detail than available in the literature

    A simple image forming technique suitable for multifrequency observations of solar radio bursts

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    A simple image forming system using a multielement interferometer for obtaining rapid pictures of solar radio bursts is described. A dispersive transmission line is used to feed the elements in series through directional couplers. Truly instantaneous pictures of solar activity can be obtained by placing a number of narrow frequency filters at the end of the I. F. amplifier in the main receiver, located at one end of the array. The two dimensional extension of this principle is examined in some detail. Multibeaming in the two arrays of a crossed grating interferometer can be combined with fast phase-scanning in one of the arrays to produce rapid pencil beam pictures. If log-periodic antennas are used, observations can even be made at widely different frequencies simultaneously. For illustration, some important parameters for simultaneous observations at 60, 90 and 120 MHz are estimated for an interferometer assumed to be located at a latitude of 30° N. The main advantage of the proposed system is that high-resolution rapid pictures of radio bursts can be obtained simultaneously at a number of frequencies with modest effort

    A VLA 20 and 90 centimetre radio survey of distant A-bell clusters with central cD galaxies

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    A radio survey, using the Very Large Array at 20 and 90 cm λ has been carried out in the direction of 46 distant Abell clusters (0.1 ≲ z ≲ 0.3) dominated by a cD galaxy (clusters classified to be Bautz-Morgan I type). A radio source coincident with the cD galaxy was detected in 16 clusters. We find that the radio luminosity function of the cD galaxies at 20cm λ, and below the luminosity P1.4GHz ≲ 1024.5 W Hz-1, is similar to that of brightest ellipticals in less clustered environments. Above this luminosity, the cDs seem to have a higher probability of becoming radio sources. The effect of optical brightness on radio emission is shown to be the same for the two classes. No significantly large population of very-steep-spectrum sources with spectral index α >1.2 (flux density ∝ frequency-α) was found to be associated with cD galaxies. A significant negative correlation is found between the radio luminosity of the cD galaxy and the cooling-time of the intra cluster medium near the galaxy. We also present evidence that the probability of radio emission from first-ranked galaxies is dependent upon their location relative to the geometrical centres of clusters and thus related to the morphological class and the evolutionary state of the clusters. We argue that both these effects are primarily caused by the dynamical evolution of these distant clusters of galaxies

    Compact radio cores and the relation between the radio and optical axes of elliptical galaxies

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    We have reinvestigated the reported tendency for the extended radio structures associated with bright elliptical galaxies to be oriented preferentially along the optical minor axes. It is found that such a tendency exists only for those galaxies in which the compact radio cores coincident with their nuclei are quite prominent. If the galaxies are divided into two groups according to whether their cores account for less than or greater than 10 per cent of the total flux density at 2.7 GHz, the angle Φ (between the radio axis and the optical minor axis) appears to be uniformly distributed between 0° and 90° for the former, but is nearly always < 30° for the latter group. One possible explanation is that the radio emission from compact cores suffers thermal absorption by ionized gas that is distributed differently in the two groups

    Relativistic beaming in the central components of double radio quasars

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    Using a large sample of 78 well-observed double quasars, we have investigated several consequences of the relativistic beaming model. In this model the ratio of the strengths of the central component and outer lobes of a double source depends on whether the jet axis lies close to or away from the line of sight, If this is the actual situation, the fraction of emission from the core, fc, may be used as a statistical measure of the orientation of the source and should be correlated with other source parameters which also depend on the inclination of the jet axis to the line of sight. We find fc to be anticorrelated with the overall projected linear size of the extended emission but to exhibit a positive correlation with both the observed degree of misalignment from a collinear double structure, and the ratio of separations of the outer hotspots from the central component. As might be expected from these relationships, we also find sources of smaller projected linear sizes to appear more misaligned and the degree of misalignment to be correlated with the ratio of separations of the outer hotspots. All these correlations are consistent with the predictions of the relativistic beaming model

    The redshift dependence of spectral index in powerful radio galaxies

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    We present and discuss in this paper the rest frame radio spectra (1-25 GHz) of a sample of fourteen radio galaxies at z > 2 from the newly defined MRC/1Jy complete sample of 558 radio sources. These galaxies are among the most powerful radio sources known and range in luminosity from 1028-1028.8 watt Hz-1 at 1 GHz. We find that the median rest frame spectral index of this sample of galaxies at z > 2 is significantly steeper than that of a matched luminosity sample of 3CRR galaxies which are at a much lower redshift (0.85 < z < 1.7). This indicates that spectral index correlates primarily with redshift, at least in the luminosity range considered here. The difference between the distributions of rest frame spectral curvatures for the two samples does not appear to be statistically significant. We suggest a new explanation for the steeper spectra of radio galaxies at high redshift involving steeper electron energy spectra at injection. Electron energy spectra are expected to steepen in a first-order Fermi acceleration process, at both non-relativistic and relativistic shock fronts, as the upstream fluid velocity decreases. This may well be the case at high redshifts: the hotter and denser circum-galactic medium at high redshifts could result in slower speeds for the hotspot and the jet material behind it. The smaller sizes of radio sources at higher redshifts provide support to this scenario
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