Issue |
A&A
Volume 687, July 2024
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | L8 | |
Number of page(s) | 10 | |
Section | Letters to the Editor | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202450011 | |
Published online | 28 June 2024 |
Letter to the Editor
Search and analysis of giant radio galaxies with associated nuclei (SAGAN)
IV. Interplay with the Supercluster environment
1
Tartu Observatory, University of Tartu, Observatooriumi 1, 61602 Tõravere, Estonia
e-mail: shishir.sankhyayan@ut.ee
2
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Calle Vía Láctea, s/n, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
e-mail: pratik.dabhade@iac.es
3
Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Departamento de Astrofisica, La Laguna, 38206 Tenerife, Spain
Received:
17
March
2024
Accepted:
29
May
2024
We investigated the prevalence of giant radio galaxies (GRGs), some of the largest structures powered by supermassive black holes, within supercluster environments, and the influence of such environments on their properties. Utilising two large catalogues of superclusters (401) and GRGs (1446), we established the existence of 77 GRGs (5.3%) residing in 64 superclusters (16%) within 0.05 ≤ z ≤ 0.42. Among the 77 GRGs found in superclusters, we identified ∼70% as residing within galaxy clusters. Within the subset of GRGs not located in superclusters, which constitutes 94.7% of the sample, a mere 21% are associated with galaxy clusters, while the remaining majority are situated in sparser environments. We examined the influence of differing environments, such as cluster versus non-cluster and supercluster versus non-supercluster regions, on the size of GRGs, while also exploring the driving factors behind their overall growth. Our findings show that the largest GRGs (≳3 Mpc) grow in underdense environments beyond the confines of dense environments. Moreover, we show that ∼24% of 1446 GRGs reside in galaxy clusters. We conclude that GRGs preferentially grow in sparser regions of the cosmic web and have a significantly larger median size. Finally, we demonstrate the potential of GRGs as astrophysical probes with specific cases where GRGs, exhibiting polarised emissions and located behind superclusters (acting as natural Faraday screens), were used to estimate magnetic field strengths of the supercluster environment at sub-microgauss levels.
Key words: magnetic fields / galaxies: active / galaxies: clusters: general / large-scale structure of Universe / radio continuum: galaxies
© The Authors 2024
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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