Morphological Annotations for Groups in the FIRST Database

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the morphology of radio sources in the FIRST survey, classifying groups by shape and identifying various complex structures, providing catalogs with probability estimates for bent types.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed morphological classification of FIRST survey sources, including new categories and probability-based catalogs for bent sources.

Findings

Identification of various radio source morphologies including WAT, NAT, X-shaped, and hybrid types.

Catalogs with probability estimates for bent source classification.

Discovery of new morphological curiosities in radio sources.

Abstract

The morphology of selected groups of sources in the FIRST (Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty Centimeters) survey and catalog is examined. Sources in the FIRST catalog (April 2003 release, 811117 entries) were sorted into singles, doubles, triples and groups of higher-count membership based on a proximity criteria. The 7106 groups with four or more components were examined individually for bent types including, but not limited to, wide-angle tail (WAT) and narrow-angle tail (NAT) types. In the process of this examination, ring, double-double (DD), X-shaped, hybrid morphology (HYMOR), giant radio sources (GRS), and the herein described W-shaped and tri-axial morphology systems were also identified. For the convenience of the reader separate tables for distinctive types were generated. A few curiosities were found. For the 16,950 three-component groups and 74,788 two-component groups, catalogs with probability estimates for bent classification, as determined by pattern recognition techniques, are presented.