The mystery of the 'Kite' radio source in Abell 2626: insights from new Chandra observations

Abstract

We present the results of a new Chandra study of the galaxy cluster A2626. The radio emission of the cluster shows a complex system of four symmetric arcs without known correlations with the X-ray emission. The mirror symmetry of the radio arcs toward the center and the presence of two optical cores in the central galaxy suggested that they may be created by pairs of precessing radio jets powered by dual AGNs inside the cD galaxy. However, previous observations failed to observe the second jetted AGN and the spectral trend due to radiative age along the radio arcs, thus challenging this interpretation. The new Chandra observation had several scientific objectives, including the search for the second AGN that would support the jet precession model. We focus here on the detailed study of the local properties of the thermal and non-thermal emission in the proximity of the radio arcs, in order to get more insights into their origin. We performed a standard data reduction of the Chandra dataset deriving the radial profiles of temperature, density, pressure and cooling time of the intra-cluster medium. We further analyzed the 2D distribution of the gas temperature, discovering that the south-western junction of the radio arcs surrounds the cool core of the cluster. We studied the X-ray SB and spectral profiles across the junction, finding a cold front spatially coincident with the radio arcs. This may suggest a connection between the sloshing of the thermal gas and the nature of the radio filaments, raising new scenarios for their origin. A possibility is that the radio arcs trace the projection of a complex surface connecting the sites where electrons are most efficiently reaccelerated by the turbulence that is generated by the gas sloshing. In this case, diffuse emission embedded by the arcs and with extremely steep spectrum should be most visible at very low radio frequencies.

7 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication on A&A

References in corpus (6)

• Shocks and cold fronts in galaxy clusters
• Do radio core-halos and cold fronts in non major merging clusters originate from the same gas sloshing?
• Gentle re-energisation of electrons in merging galaxy clusters
• A systematic search for X-ray cavities in galaxy clusters, groups, and elliptical galaxies
• XMM-Newton and Chandra Observations of Abell 2626: Interacting Radio Jets and Cooling Core with Jet Precession?
• Discovery of a fourth arc in Abell 2626 at 610 MHz with the GMRT: Spectral properties and possibilities for the origin

Cited by in corpus (13)

• GASP XXIII: A jellyfish galaxy as an astrophysical laboratory of the baryonic cycle
• GASP. XXII The molecular gas content of the JW100 jellyfish galaxy at z~0.05: does ram pressure promote molecular gas formation?
• Unveiling the rarest morphologies of the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey radio source population with self-organised maps
• On the relation between mini-halos and AGN feedback in clusters of galaxies
• GASP XXXVIII: The LOFAR-MeerKAT-VLA view on the non-thermal side of a jellyfish galaxy
• Physical properties of the X-ray gas as a dynamical diagnosis for galaxy clusters
• The great Kite in the sky: a LOFAR observation of the radio source in Abell 2626
• Merging cold front and AGN feedback in the peculiar galaxy cluster Abell 2626
• The effect of cluster dynamical state on ram-pressure stripping
• Role of magnetic fields in ram pressure stripped galaxies
• GASP XXXIX: MeerKAT hunts Jellyfish in A2626
• Abell 2626 and friends: large and small scale structure
• MeerKAT 21-cm HI imaging of Abell 2626 and beyond