FIRST winged radio galaxies with X and Z symmetry

TL;DR

This study systematically identifies and analyzes 296 X-shaped and Z-shaped radio galaxies from the VLA FIRST survey, revealing their properties, classifications, and statistical characteristics, including luminosity and morphology differences.

Contribution

It presents the first large sample of winged radio galaxies with X and Z symmetry, including optical identifications and comparative analysis with previous samples.

Findings

XRGs have higher average luminosity than ZRGs.

70% of XRGs are FR II type, 13% are FR I.

Farthest known XRG and ZRG are J1124+4325 and J1319+0502.

Abstract

X-shaped radio galaxies are a subclass of radio sources that exhibit a pair of secondary low surface brightness radio lobes oriented at an angle to the primary high surface brightness lobes. Sometimes, the secondary low brightened lobes emerge from the edges of the primary high brightened lobes and form a Z-symmetric morphology. We present a systematical search result for X-shaped radio galaxies (XRGs) and Z-shaped radio galaxies (ZRGs) from the VLA Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters (VLA FIRST) Survey at 1.4 GHz. Our search yields a total of 296 number of radio sources, out of which 161 are XRGs and 135 are ZRGs. We have also made optical identification of these sources from the different available literature. J1124+4325 and J1319+0502 are the farthest known XRG and ZRG, respectively. We have estimated spectral index and radio luminosity of these radio sources and made a comparative study with previously detected XRGs and ZRGs. The average value of luminosities for XRGs is higher than that of ZRGs. With the help of a large sample size of the newly discovered XRGs and ZRGs, various statistical properties of these sources are studied. Out of 161 XRGs presented in the current paper, 70% (113) are FR II radio galaxies and 13% (20) are FR I radio galaxies. For 28 XRGs, the morphology is complex and could not be classified. For XRGs, the statistical studies are done on the angle between the major axis and minor axis and the relative size of the major and minor axes. For the ZRGs a statistical study is done on the angular size.