LOFAR MSSS: The scaling relation between AGN cavity power and radio luminosity at low radio frequencies

¹ Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam, Postbus 94249, 1090 GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands
e-mail: g.d.kokotanekov@uva.nl
² Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, The Netherlands
³ CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, 26 Dick Perry Ave., Kensington WA 6151, Australia
⁴ Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Landleven 12, 9747 AD Groningen, The Netherlands
⁵ Universität Hamburg, Hamburger Sternwarte, Gojenbergsweg 112, 21029 Hamburg, Germany
⁶ Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333CA Leiden, The Netherlands
⁷ School of Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK
⁸ Radio Astronomy Institute (IRA) – INAF – via Gobetti 101, 40100 Bologna, Italy
⁹ Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester, Manchester, M139 PL, UK
¹⁰ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
¹¹ Department of Astrophysics, Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics (IMAPP), Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands
¹² Astronomical Observatory, Jagiellonian University, ul. Orla 171, 30-244 Kraków, Poland
¹³ Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK
¹⁴ Department of Physics, The George Washington University, 725 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20052, USA
¹⁵ Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon, Observatoire de Lyon, 9 Av. Charles André, 69230 Saint-Genis-Laval, France
¹⁶ GEPI, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, Université Paris Diderot, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92190 Meudon, France
¹⁷ Department of Physics & Electronics, Rhodes University, PO Box 94, 6140 Grahamstown, South Africa
¹⁸ Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), University College London (UCL), Holmbury St Mary, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK
¹⁹ School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, 6140 Wellington, New Zealand
²⁰ Laboratoire Lagrange, Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Bvd de l’Observatoire, CS 34229, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France
²¹ School of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK

Received: 5 April 2017
Accepted: 30 May 2017

Abstract

We present a new analysis of the widely used relation between cavity power and radio luminosity in clusters of galaxies with evidence for strong AGN feedback. We studied the correlation at low radio frequencies using two new surveys – the first alternative data release of the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS ADR1) at 148 MHz and LOFAR’s firstall-sky survey, the Multifrequency Snapshot Sky Survey (MSSS) at 140 MHz. We find a scaling relation P_cav ∝ L^β₁₄₈, with a logarithmic slope of β = 0.51 ± 0.14, which is in good agreement with previous results based on data at 327 MHz. The large scatter present in this correlation confirms the conclusion reached at higher frequencies that the total radio luminosity at a single frequency is a poor predictor of the total jet power. Previous studies have shown that the magnitude of this scatter can be reduced when bolometric radio luminosity corrected for spectral aging is used. We show that including additional measurements at 148 MHz alone is insufficient to improve this correction and further reduce the scatter in the correlation. For a subset of four well-resolved sources, we examined the detected extended structures at low frequencies and compare with the morphology known from higher frequency images and Chandra X-ray maps. In the case of Perseus we discuss details in the structures of the radio mini-halo, while in the 2A 0335+096 cluster we observe new diffuse emission associated with multiple X-ray cavities and likely originating from past activity. For A2199 and MS 0735.6+7421, we confirm that the observed low-frequency radio lobes are confined to the extents known from higher frequencies. This new low-frequency analysis highlights the fact that existing cavity power to radio luminosity relations are based on a relatively narrow range of AGN outburst ages. We discuss how the correlation could be extended using low frequency data from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) in combination with future, complementary deeper X-ray observations.