Discovery of a fourth arc in Abell 2626 at 610 MHz with the GMRT: Spectral properties and possibilities for the origin

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a new arc in Abell 2626 at 610 MHz, analyzes its spectral properties, and discusses possible origins including precessing jets and gravitational lensing, suggesting further observations are needed.

Contribution

The discovery of a fourth arc in Abell 2626 and analysis of its spectral and morphological properties provide new insights into the cluster's radio structures and their origins.

Findings

Discovery of a fourth arc at 610 MHz in Abell 2626.

Spectral indices of the arcs range from 3.2 to 3.6.

Morphological and spectral analysis suggests precessing jets or gravitational lensing as possible origins.

Abstract

We report the discovery of a fourth eastern arc (Arc E) towards the cool-core cluster Abell 2626 using 610 MHz Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope observations. Three arcs towards north, west and south were known from earlier works at 1400 MHz and proposed to have originated in precessing radio jets of the central active galactic nucleus. The 610 - 1400 MHz integrated spectral indices of the arcs are in the range 3.2 - 3.6 and the spectral index map shows uniform distribution along the lengths of the arcs. If associated with A2626, the arcs have linear extents in the range 79 - 152 kpc. The detection of Arc E favours the scenario in which a pair of bipolar precessing jets were active and halted to produce the arc system. Based on the morphological symmetry and spectral similarity, we indicate a possible role of gravitational lensing. Further high resolution low frequency observations and measurements of the mass of the system are needed to disentangle the mystery of this source.