MWA and ASKAP observations of atypical radio-halo-hosting galaxy clusters: Abell 141 and Abell 3404

TL;DR

This study detects and characterizes radio halos in galaxy clusters Abell 141 and Abell 3404 using multiple radio telescopes, revealing their spectral properties, morphology, and relation to cluster dynamics, including the discovery of an ultra-steep-spectrum halo.

Contribution

It presents the first detection of a giant radio halo in Abell 3404 and confirms the halo in Abell 141, providing detailed spectral analysis and insights into their morphology and scaling relations.

Findings

Abell 3404 hosts an ultra-steep-spectrum radio halo.

Radio and X-ray brightness are correlated in Abell 3404 but not in Abell 141.

Both halos follow existing scaling relations, with Abell 3404's halo being faint and steep-spectrum.

Abstract

We report on the detection of a giant radio halo in the cluster Abell 3404 as well as confirmation of the radio halo observed in Abell 141 (with linear extents $\sim 770$ kpc and $\sim 850$ kpc, respectively). We use the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in conjunction with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) to characterise the emission and intervening radio sources from $\sim100$-$1000$ MHz; power law models are fit to the spectral energy distributions with spectral indices $\alpha_{88}^{1110} = -1.66 \pm 0.07$ and $\alpha_{88}^{944} = -1.06 \pm 0.09$ for the radio halos in Abell 3404 and Abell 141, respectively. We find strong correlation between radio and X-ray surface brightness for Abell~3404 but little correlation for Abell~141. We note each cluster has an atypical morphology for a radio-halo--hosting cluster, with Abell 141 having been previously reported to be in a pre-merging state, and Abell 3404 is largely relaxed with only minor evidence for a disturbed morphology. We find that the radio halo power is consistent with the current radio halo sample and $P_\nu$-$M$ scaling relations, but note that the radio halo in Abell 3404 is an ultra-steep-spectrum radio halo (USSRH) and, as with other USSRHs lies slightly below the best-fit $P_{1.4}$-$M$ relation. We find that an updated scaling relation is consistent with previous results and shifting the frequency to 150 MHz does not significantly alter the best-fit relations with a sample of 86 radio halos. We suggest that the USSRH halo in Abell 3404 represents the faint class of radio halos that will be found in clusters undergoing weak mergers.