The jet paths of radio active galactic nuclei and their cluster weather

¹ IAASARS, National Observatory Athens, Lofos Nymfon, 11852 Athens, Greece
² Thüringer Landessternwarte, Sternwarte 5, 07778 Tautenburg, Germany
³ Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64 FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland
⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universita di Bologna, Via Gobetti 93/2, 40122 Bologna, Italy
⁵ Hamburger Sternwarte, Gojenbergsweg 112, 21029 Hamburg, Germany
⁶ Istituto di Radioastronomia, INAF, Via Gobetti 101, 40122 Bologna, Italy
⁷ Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
⁸ Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, PO Box 15400 Espoo FI-00100, Finland
⁹ Astrophysics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK
¹⁰ Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Copenhagen N, Denmark
¹¹ Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Jagtvej 128, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
¹² Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
¹³ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
¹⁴ The Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy, Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
¹⁵ School of Science, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia
¹⁶ CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, PO Box 1130 Bentley, WA 6102, Australia
¹⁷ Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
¹⁸ South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, 2 Fir Street, Observatory 7925, South Africa
¹⁹ Department of Physics and Electronics, Rhodes University, PO Box 94 Grahamstown 6140, South Africa
²⁰ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of the Western Cape, Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville 7535, South Africa
²¹ National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 1003 Lopezville Road, Socorro, NM 87801, USA
²² Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK
²³ ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Oude Hoogeveensedijk 4, 7991 PD Dwingeloo, The Netherlands
²⁴ Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
²⁵ Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 10 Yuanhua Road, Qixia District, Nanjing 210023, PR China
²⁶ Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy, and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of the Western Cape, Robert Sobukwe Road, 7535 Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa
²⁷ School of Astronomy, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), PO Box 19395-5531 Tehran, Iran
²⁸ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
²⁹ Max-Planck Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany
³⁰ South African Astronomical Observatory, PO Box 9 Observatory 7935, South Africa
³¹ Department of Physics, University of Antananarivo, PO Box 906 Antananarivo 101, Madagascar

^⋆ Corresponding author; elenivard@gmail.com

Received: 26 November 2024
Accepted: 2 February 2025

Abstract

We studied bent radio sources within X-ray galaxy groups in the COSMOS and XMM-LSS fields. The radio data were obtained from the MeerKAT International GHz Tiered Extragalactic Explorations data release 1 (MIGHTEE-DR1) at 1.2–1.3 GHz, with angular resolutions of 8.9″ and 5″, and median noise levels of rms_med ∼ = 3.5 and 5.5 μJy/beam. Bent radio active galactic nuclei (AGN) were identified through visual inspection. Our analysis included 19 bent radio AGN in the COSMOS field and 17 in the XMM-LSS field that lie within X-ray galaxy groups (2 × 10¹³ ≲ M_200c/M_⊙ ≤ 3 × 10¹⁴). We investigated the relationship between their bending angle (BA) – the angle formed by the jets or lobes of two-sided radio sources associated with AGN – and the properties of their host galaxies and large-scale environment probed by the X-ray galaxy groups. Our key findings are: (a) In the XMM-LSS field, we observed a strong correlation between the linear projected size of the bent AGN, the group halo mass, and the projected distance from the group centre. This trend, consistent with previous studies, was not detected in the COSMOS sample. (b) The BA is a function of environmental density, with the type of medium playing a significant role. Additionally, at z ≤ 0.5 we found a higher number of bent sources (BA ≤ 160°) compared to higher redshifts (z ∼ 1), by a factor of > 1.5. This trend aligns with magneto-hydrodynamic simulations, which suggest that denser environments and longer interaction times at lower redshifts contribute to this effect. A comparison with the literature suggests that jet bending in galaxy groups within the redshift range 0.1 < z < 1.2 is primarily driven by ram pressure exerted on the jets, which occurs during quiescent phases of AGN activity. This study underscores the role of environmental interactions in shaping the morphology of radio AGN within galaxy groups, providing insights into the interplay between large-scale structure and AGN physics.