What Are "X-Shaped" Radio Sources Telling Us? I. Very Large Array Imaging of a Large Sample of Low Axial Ratio Radio Sources

TL;DR

This study uses multi-frequency VLA imaging of 100 low axial ratio radio sources to explore the physical mechanisms depositing plasma off the main radio axis, providing insights into X-shaped radio sources.

Contribution

It introduces a large sample of low axial ratio radio sources observed with detailed multi-frequency VLA imaging to investigate off-axis plasma deposition mechanisms.

Findings

Radio sources with significant off-axis plasma are identified.

The imaging reveals diverse morphologies and plasma distributions.

Insights into the physical processes shaping X-shaped radio sources are gained.

Abstract

We present historical VLA and Jansky Very Large Array multi-frequency multi-array radio continuum imaging of a unique sample of 100 radio sources that have been selected on the basis of low axial ratios. These observations allow us the opportunity to study radio sources with synchrotron plasma that is significantly offset from the main radio axis and therefore open a window into investigations of physical mechanisms responsible for depositing the plasma in off-axis regions. These images are discussed in detail in subsequent papers in this series (Saripalli & Roberts 2017; Roberts & Saripalli 2017).