Twin radio relics in a near-by low-mass galaxy cluster Abell 168

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of twin radio relics in the low-mass galaxy cluster Abell 168, providing new insights into merger shock phenomena in such environments and expanding the known mass range of clusters hosting relics.

Contribution

The study presents the first detection of radio relics in a low-mass galaxy cluster, demonstrating that merger shocks can produce relics even in less massive clusters.

Findings

Detected twin radio relics at multiple frequencies with GMRT and VLA.

The elongated relic's radio power aligns with empirical relations for relics.

The ring-shaped relic likely results from revived old plasma due to shock compression.

Abstract

We report the discovery of twin radio relics in the outskirts of the low-mass merging galaxy cluster Abell 168 (redshift=0.045). One of the relics is elongated with a linear extent $\sim$ 800 kpc, a projected width of $\sim$ 80 kpc and is located $\sim$ 900 kpc toward the north of the cluster center, oriented roughly perpendicular to the major axis of the X-ray emission. The second relic is ring-shaped with a size $\sim$ 220 kpc and is located near the inner edge of the elongated relic at a distance of $\sim$ 600 kpc from the cluster center. These radio sources were imaged at 323 and 608 MHz with the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope and at 1520 MHz with the Karl G Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). The elongated relic was detected at all the frequencies with a radio power at 1.4 GHz of 1.38$\pm 0.14 \times 10^{23}$ W Hz$^{-1}$ having a power law in the frequency range 70 - 1500 MHz (S$\propto \nu^{\alpha}, \alpha = -1.1 \pm 0.04$). This radio power is in good agreement with that expected from the known empirical relation between the radio powers of relics and the host cluster masses. This is the lowest mass (M$_{500}$ = 1.24$\times$10$^{14}$ M$_{o}$) cluster in which relics due to merger shocks are detected. The ring-shaped relic has a steeper spectral index ($\alpha$) of -1.74$\pm$0.29 in the frequency range 100 - 600 MHz. We propose this relic to be an old plasma revived due to adiabatic compression by the outgoing shock which produced the elongated relic.