Intensity fluctuations of radio halo in galaxy cluster: Insights from power spectrum estimation
Non-thermal synchrotron emissions from radio halo allow us to study mechanisms of particle (re)acceleration, magnetic field distribution, merger history, and turbulence in the intra-cluster medium. We propose power spectrum estimation as a novel and complementary method to study galaxy clusters. We use 610 MHz observations of MACSJ0014.3-302 and MACSJ0152.5-2852 to estimate the angular power spectrum (C_l) from the central halo regions. The C_l shows excess emission only for MACSJ0014.3-302. Using simulations, we find that a halo model with power-law fluctuations, in addition to the smooth exponential radial profile, is required to explain the observed C_l. We compare the observed power-law with existing models of MHD turbulence. The method may be useful for large data from SKA, finding megahalos in other sources, or detecting faint cluster emissions beyond the visible extent.