2013/03/31 by Luke Pratley, M. Johnston‐Hollitt, Melanie Johnston-Hollitt +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Abell 2744 #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Brightest cluster galaxy #Cluster (spacecraft) #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy cluster #Intracluster medium #Physics #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #Radio galaxy #Redshift #astro-ph.CO
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stt448
17 pages, 15 figures, accepted to MNRAS. Version 2 corrects a mistake in the average RM between the jets (and hence the lower estimate of the cluster B-field) which was found during proofing
arxiv created 2013/04/05 · openalex publication_date 2013/04/13 · arxiv updated 2015/06/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present an in-depth, multiwavelength study of the radio galaxy PKS J0334−3900, which resides at the centre of Abell 3135. The spectro-polarimetric radio observations are combined with spectroscopic optical and X-ray data to illustrate the use of head–tail radio galaxies in revealing properties of the intracluster medium (ICM). Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) observations at 1.4, 2.5, 4.6 and 8.6 GHz are presented with a detailed analysis of the morphology and spectral indices which give physical parameters to constrain the dynamical history of the galaxy. Using these constraints we produce a simulation of PKS J0334−3900. We find that this particular head–tail morphology can be induced via a combination of orbital motion due to a binary companion and the relative motion through the ICM. New Chandra images of A3135 are presented from which we obtain a cluster electron density of |ne,0 = (1.06 ± 0.11) × 10-3 \rm cm-3|, a global temperature of 2.4 |+0.51-0.38| keV and a lower limit to the radio jet power of PKS J0334−3900 of 1.6 × 1044 erg s−1. A new redshift analysis of the cluster from available spectroscopic data demonstrates A3135 to be comprised of galaxies with 0.058 ≤ z < 0.066 and gives a new mean cluster redshift of 0.06228 ± 0.00015. We also uncovered a background subgroup within the range 0.066 ≤ z < 0.070. Additionally, ATCA Stokes Q and U data of Abell 3135 were used to obtain rotation measure values along the line of sight to PKS J0334−3900. Using our simulation, we are able to infer the distance between the jets along the line of sight to be 154 ± 16 kpc, which when combined with the difference in rotation measure between the jets provides a novel new way to estimate the average magnetic field within a cluster. A lower limit to the cluster magnetic field was calculated to be 0.09 ± 0.03 μG. From these results, we have shown that different techniques can be combined from the observations of head–tail galaxies to infer information on the cluster environment, showing them to be an important class of objects in next generation all sky surveys.