Tailed Radio Galaxies as Probes of Cluster Physics in the Square Kilometre Array Era

TL;DR

This paper discusses how future SKA-1 radio surveys will enable the use of tailed radio galaxies as powerful probes for studying galaxy clusters, their magnetic fields, and dynamics across cosmic time, vastly expanding current capabilities.

Contribution

It demonstrates the potential of SKA-1 surveys to detect over a million tailed radio galaxies up to redshift 2, significantly enhancing cluster detection and characterization methods.

Findings

SKA-1 will detect over 1 million tailed radio galaxies.

Tailed radio galaxies can trace cluster environments up to redshift 2.

Existing surveys show the feasibility of using tailed galaxies as environmental probes.

Abstract

In recent years, the use of tailed radio galaxies as environmental probes has gained momentum as a method for galaxy cluster detection, examining the dynamics of individual clusters, measuring the density and velocity flows in the intra-cluster medium, and for probing cluster magnetic fields. To date instrumental limitations in terms of resolution and sensitivity have confined this research to the local (z < 0.7) Universe. The advent of SKA-1 surveys however will allow detection of well over 1 million tailed radio galaxies and their associated galaxy clusters out to redshifts of 2 or more. This is in fact ten times more than the current number of known clusters in the Universe. Such a substantial sample of tailed galaxies will provide an invaluable tool not only for detecting clusters, but also for characterizing their intra-cluster medium, magnetic fields and dynamical state as a function of cosmic time. In this paper we present an analysis of the usability of tailed radio galaxies as tracers of dense environments extrapolated from existing deep radio surveys such the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South.