2018/11/09 by Payton E. Rodman, P. E. Rodman, R. J. Turner +14
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Asymmetry #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy cluster #Luminosity #Physics #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #Radio galaxy #X-shaped radio galaxy #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/sty3070
18 pages, 31 figures, 1 table; accepted in MNRAS
arxiv created 2018/11/09 · openalex publication_date 2018/11/12 · arxiv updated 2018/11/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We investigate the role of environment on radio galaxy properties by constructing a sample of large (≳100 kpc), nearby (|z| < 0.3) radio sources identified as part of the Radio Galaxy Zoo citizen science project. Our sample consists of 16 Fanaroff-Riley Type II (FR-II) sources, 6 FR-I sources, and 1 source with a hybrid morphology. FR-I sources appear to be hosted by more massive galaxies, consistent with previous studies. In the FR-II sample, we compare the degree of asymmetry in radio lobe properties to asymmetry in the radio source environment, quantified through optical galaxy clustering. We find that the length of radio lobes in FR-II sources is anticorrelated with both galaxy clustering and lobe luminosity. These results are in quantitative agreement with predictions from radio source dynamical models and suggest that galaxy clustering provides a useful proxy for the ambient gas density distribution encountered by the radio lobes.