arXiv subjects

Shea Brown

Publications and source records attributed to Shea Brown.

26 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Shocking news outside of cluster cores

With magnetic fields below one microgauss, the minimum pressures of synchrotron plasmas start to approach those in the thermal gas in cluster outskirts and the more diffuse WHIM in large-scale structure filaments. We summarize some of our techniques to find the corresponding low surface brightness radio sources and what we have uncovered. We identify cluster-like sources in poor environments, likely requiring very efficient relativistic particle acceleration, as well as very diffuse radio galaxies with no indications of current activity. More detailed observations of Coma and a new radio-identified cluster highlight some emerging issues in cluster-related shocks: Coma has a shock on the border of its halo, suggesting a connection between the two; the Coma relic appears to be an "infall" shock, associated with a 500 km/s infalling column of galaxies; the new cluster has filamentary pieces in addition to its more classical halo and peripheral relics, suggesting that we are beginning to see relic emission face on. Finally, a different kind of shock comes from our recent finding of ambiguities in the determination of rotation measures which will influence cluster magnetic field studies.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

Multiple shock structures in a radio selected cluster of galaxies

We present a new radio-selected cluster of galaxies, 0217+70, using observations from the Very Large Array and archival optical and X-ray data. The new cluster is one of only seven known that has candidate double peripheral radio relics, and the second of those with a giant radio halo (GRH), as well. It also contains unusual diffuse radio filaments interior to the peripheral relics, and a clumpy, elongated X-ray structure. All of these indicate a very actively evolving system, with ongoing accretion and merger activity, illuminating a network of shocks, such as those first seen in numerical simulations. The peripheral relics are most easily understood as outgoing spherical merger shocks with large variations in brightness along them, likely reflecting the inhomogeneities in the shocks' magnetic fields . The interior filaments could be projections of substructures from the sheet-like peripheral shocks, or they might be separate structures due to multiple accretion events. ROSAT images show large-scale diffuse X-ray emission coincident with the GRH, and additional patchy diffuse emission that suggests a recent merger event. This uniquely rich set of radio shocks and halo offer the possibility, with deeper X-ray, optical and data higher resolution radio observations, of testing the models of how shocks and turbulence couple to the relativistic plasma. 0217+70 is also over-luminous in the radio compared to the empirical radio-X-ray correlation for clusters -- the third example of such a system. This new population of diffuse radio emission opens up the possibility of probing low-mass cluster mergers with upcoming deep radio continuum surveys.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

Diffuse Radio Emission in/around the Coma Cluster: Beyond Simple Accretion

We report on new 1.41 GHz Green Bank Telescope and 352 MHz Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope observations of the Coma cluster and its environs. At 1.41 GHz we tentatively detect an extension to the Coma cluster radio relic source 1253+275 which makes its total extent ~2 Mpc. This extended relic is linearly polarized as seen in our GBT data, the NVSS, and archival images, strengthening a shock interpretation. The extended relic borders a previously undetected "wall" of galaxies in the infall region of the Coma cluster. We suggest that the radio relic is an infall shock, as opposed to the outgoing merger shocks believed responsible for other radio relics. We also find a sharp edge, or "front", on the western side of the 352 MHz radio halo. This front is coincident with a similar discontinuity in the X-ray surface brightness and temperature in its southern half, suggesting a primary shock-acceleration origin for the local synchrotron emitting electrons. The northern half of the synchrotron front is less well correlated with the X-ray properties, perhaps due to projection effects. We confirm the global pixel-to-pixel power-law correlation between the 352 MHz radio brightness and X-ray brightness with a slope that is inconsistent with predictions of either primary shock acceleration or secondary production of relativistic electrons in Giant Radio Halos, but is allowable in the framework of the turbulent re-acceleration of relic plasma. The failure of these first order models and the need for a more comprehensive view of the intracluster medium energization is also highlighted by the very different shapes of the diffuse radio and X-ray emission. We note the puzzling correspondence between the shape of the brighter regions of the radio halo and the surface mass density derived from weak lensing.

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arXiv2009

Cross-Correlation of Diffuse Synchrotron and Large-Scale Structures

We explore for the first time the method of cross-correlation of radio synchrotron emission and tracers of large-scale structure in order to detect the diffuse IGM/WHIM. We performed a cross-correlation of a 34 x 34 degree area of 2MASS galaxies for two redshift slices (0.03 < z < 0.04 and 0.06 < z < 0.07) with the corresponding region of the 1.4 GHz Bonn survey. For this analysis, we assumed that the synchrotron surface brightness is linearly proportional to surface density of galaxies. We also sampled the cross-correlation function using 24 distant fields of the same size from the Bonn survey, to better assess the noise properties. Though we obtained a null result, we found that by adding a signal weighted by the 2MASS image with a filament (peak) surface brightness of 1 (7) mK and 7 (49) mK would produce a 3 sigma positive correlation for the 0.03 < z < 0.04 and 0.06 < z < 0.07 redshift slices respectively. These detection thresholds correspond to minimum energy magnetic fields as low as 0.2 microG, close to some theoretical expectations for filament field values. This injected signal is also below the rms noise of the Bonn survey, and demonstrates the power of this technique and its utility for upcoming sensitive continuum surveys such as GALFACTS at Arecibo and those planned with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA).

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arXiv2008

Detecting Magnetic Fields in Large-Scale Structure with Radio Polarization

We present our attempts to detect magnetic fields in filamentary large-scale structure (LSS) by observing polarized synchrotron emission emitted by structure formation shocks. Little is known about the strength and order of magnetic fields beyond the largest clusters of galaxies, and synchrotron emission holds enormous promise as a means of probing magnetic fields in these low density regions. We report on observations taken at the Green Bank Telescope which reveal a possible Mpc extension to the Coma cluster relic. We also highlight the major obstacle that diffuse galactic foreground emission poses for any search for large-scale, low surface-brightness extragalactic emission. Finally we explore cross-correlation of diffuse radio emission with optical tracers of LSS as a means to statistically detecting magnetic fields in the presence of this confounding foreground emission.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Diffuse cluster-like radio emission in poor environments

We present a study of the spectral, polarimetric, morphological and environmental properties of the diffuse radio source 0809+39 using observations taken with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope, the Very Large Array, and archival optical and X-ray data. The source has two distinct diffuse, steep-spectrum components, one in the north that is highly polarized, and a linear southern component undetected in polarization. We discuss several plausible origins for each component, and conclude that the northern bright polarized component is most likely a radio relic associated with a poor z$\sim$0.2 cluster of galaxies, with a radio/X-ray luminosity ratio two orders of magnitude above typical values. The southern component is aligned with a more extended filament of galaxies $\sim$5 Mpc long at z$\sim$0.04. Deep optical and X-ray follow-ups are still needed in order to confirm and understand the physical origins of the synchrotron emission. Whatever the details of these origins, 0809+39 highlights the utility of synchrotron radiation for illuminating the diffuse components of low density environments unrelated to rich clusters.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

The Discovery of Diffuse Radio Polarization Structures in the NVSS

We have developed a method for recovering polarization structures from the NRAO Very Large Array Sky Survey (NVSS) on larger angular scales than the nominal 15 arc minute survey limit. The technique depends on the existence of smaller scale fluctuations in polarization angle, to which the interferometer is sensitive, while the undetected total intensity of the structures can be arbitrarily large. We recover the large scale structure of the polarized Milky Way, as seen in single dish surveys, as well as a wide variety of smaller scale galactic and extragalactic features. We present a brief discussion of the uncertainties and limitations of the reprocessed NVSS polarization survey, a comparison of single-dish and NVSS results, and a sampling of the new polarization structures. We show a companion feature 1.8 Mpc outside of Abell cluster 3744, apparent Mpc-scale extensions to the tailed radio galaxy 3C31, a possible new giant galactic loop,and a new bright polarized patch in supernova remnant CTA1. We note that there is little quantitative information from these detections, and followup investigations would be necessary to measure reliable polarized fluxes and position angles. Some of the new features discovered in this NVSS reanalysis could provide a foreground for CMB polarization studies, but the internal foreground modeling for the next generation of experiments should have no difficulty accounting for them.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Extragalactic Radio Sources and the WMAP Cold Spot

We detect a dip of 20-45% in the surface brightness and number counts of NVSS sources smoothed to a few degrees at the location of the WMAP cold spot. The dip has structure on scales of approximately 1-10 degrees. Together with independent all-sky wavelet analyses, our results suggest that the dip in extragalactic brightness and number counts and the WMAP cold spot are physically related, i.e., that the coincidence is neither a statistical anomaly nor a WMAP foreground correction problem. If the cold spot does originate from structures at modest redshifts, as we suggest, then there is no remaining need for non-Gaussian processes at the last scattering surface of the CMB to explain the cold spot. The late integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect, already seen statistically for NVSS source counts, can now be seen to operate on a single region. To create the magnitude and angular size of the WMAP cold spot requires a ~140 Mpc radius completely empty void at z<=1 along this line of sight. This is far outside the current expectations of the concordance cosmology, and adds to the anomalies seen in the CMB.

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