Signatures in a Giant Radio Galaxy of a Cosmological Shock Wave at Intersecting Filaments of Galaxies

Abstract

Sensitive images of low-level, Mpc-sized radio cocoons offer new opportunities to probe large scale intergalactic gas flows outside clusters of galaxies. New radio images of high surface brightness sensitivity at strategically chosen wavelengths of the giant radio galaxy NGC 315 (Mack et al. 1997,1998) reveal significant asymmetries and particularities in the morphology, radio spectrum and polarization of the ejected radio plasma. We argue that the combination of these signatures provides a sensitive probe of an environmental shock wave. Analysis of optical redshifts in NGC 315 vicinity confirms its location to be near, or at a site of large-scale flow collisions in the 100 Mpc sized Pisces-Perseus Supercluster region. NGC 315 resides at the intersection of several galaxy filaments, and its radio plasma serves there as a `weather station' (Burns 1998) probing the flow of the elusive and previously invisible IGM gas. If our interpretation is correct, this is the first indication for a shock wave in flows caused by the cosmological large scale structure formation, which is located in a filament of galaxies. The possibility that the putative shock wave is a source of gamma-rays and ultra high energy cosmic rays is briefly discussed.

arXiv commentaccepted by Astrophysical Journal Letters, 4 pages, 3 figures (incl. 2 color), uses emulateapj5.sty (included), aastex.sty (included) and psfig.sty

References in corpus (11)

• How Filaments are Woven into the Cosmic Web
• The Protogalactic Origin for Cosmic Magnetic Fields
• Properties of Cosmic Shock Waves in Large Scale Structure Formation
• Reviving Fossil Radio Plasma in Clusters of Galaxies by Adiabatic Compression in Environmental Shock Waves
• A Cluster Merger and the Origin of the Extended Radio Emission in Abell 3667
• Gamma-Ray Background from Structure Formation in the Intergalactic Medium
• Cluster Accretion Shocks as Possible Acceleration Sites for Ultra High Energy Protons below the Greisen Cutoff
• Contributions to the Cosmic Ray Flux above the Ankle: Clusters of Galaxies
• Forming Clusters of Galaxies as the Origin of Unidentified GeV Gamma-Ray Sources
• On the role of shock waves in galaxy cluster evolution
• Detection of the Entropy of the Intergalactic Medium: Accretion Shocks in Clusters, Adiabatic Cores in Groups

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Origin of Galactic and Extragalactic Magnetic Fields
• On the Cluster Physics of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Surveys I: The Influence of Feedback, Non-thermal Pressure and Cluster Shapes on Y-M Scaling Relations
• Cosmic ray transport in galaxy clusters: implications for radio halos, gamma-ray signatures, and cool core heating
• Gamma-Rays from Intergalactic Shocks
• Evidence for Shock Acceleration and Intergalactic Magnetic Fields in a Large-Scale Filament of Galaxies ZwCl 2341.1+0000
• A Comparison of Cosmological Codes: Properties of Thermal Gas and Shock Waves in Large Scale Structures
• Inter-cluster Filaments of Galaxies Programme: Abundance and Distribution of Filaments in the 2dFGRS Catalogue
• Nonthermal Particles and Radiation Produced by Cluster Merger Shocks
• Black Hole Mass Measurements of Radio Galaxies NGC 315 and NGC 4261 Using ALMA CO Observations
• Diffuse polarized emission associated with the Perseus cluster
• Multifrequency observations of the jets in the radio galaxy NGC 315
• Radio Galaxy NGC 1265 unveils the Accretion Shock onto the Perseus Galaxy Cluster
• 3C 129 at 90cm: Evidence for a Radio Relic?
• The spectral-curvature parameter: an alternative tool for the analysis of synchrotron spectra