Radio Properties of Cavities in the ICM: Imprints of AGN Activity

Abstract

We present new, high resolution radio images of sources associated with cD galaxies and X-ray cavity systems located in cluster cores. The cavity properties derived from archival Chandra observations give reliable estimates of the total jet power and age independently of the radio synchrotron flux. We combine the X-ray data and VLA radio images taken at multiple frequencies to investigate several fundamental properties of cluster radio sources, including their radiative (mechanical) efficiencies, magnetic field contents, and particle contents, and we evaluate the assumption of equipartition in these systems. We show that high radio frequencies probe the current AGN output, while frequencies at or below 327 MHz trace the history of AGN activity in the cores of clusters over the past several hundred million years.

6 pages, 4 figures, To appear in "Heating vs. Cooling in Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies," eds. H. Boehringer, P. Schuecker, G. W. Pratt & A. Finoguenov (ESO Astrophysics Symposia), Garching (Germany), August 2006

References in corpus (6)

• The broken hierarchy of galaxy formation
• A Systematic Study of Radio-Induced X-ray Cavities in Clusters, Groups, and Galaxies
• What Shapes the Luminosity Function of Galaxies?
• Radio Bubbles in Clusters
• Particle Energies and Filling Fractions of Radio Bubbles in Cluster Cores
• Hydra A at Low Radio Frequencies

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• A GMRT multifrequency radio study of the isothermal core of the poor galaxy cluster AWM 4