Hot gaseous coronae of early-type galaxies and their radio luminosity function

Gopal-Krishna, ; Wiita, Paul J. (1988) Hot gaseous coronae of early-type galaxies and their radio luminosity function Nature, 333 . pp. 49-51. ISSN 0028-0836

Full text not available from this repository.

Official URL: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v333/n6168/ab...

Related URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/333049a0

Abstract

Recent X-ray observations have revealed that early-type galaxies (which usually produce extended double radio sources) generally have hot gaseous haloes extending up to ~102kpc. Moreover, much of the cosmic X-ray background radiation is probably due to a hotter, but extremely tenuous, intergalactic medium (IGM)3. We have presented an analytical model for the propagation of relativistic beams from galactic nuclei, in which the beams' crossing of the pressure-matched interface between the IGM and the gaseous halo, plays an important role. The hotspots at the ends of the beams fade quickly when their advance becomes subsonic with respect to the IGM. This model has successfully predicted (for typical double radio sources) the observed current mean linear-size (~2D 350 kpc) , the observed decrease in linear-size with cosmological redshift and the slope of the linear-size versus radio luminosity relation. We have also been able to predict the redshift-dependence of observed numbers and radio luminosities of giant radio galaxies. Here, we extend this model to include the propagation of somewhat weaker beams. We show that the observed flattening of the local radio luminosity function (LRLF) for radio luminosity P≈ 1024 W Hz-1 at 1 GHz can be explained without invoking ad hoc a corresponding break in the beam power function Φ(Lb), because the heads of the beams with Lb <1025 W Hz-1 are decelerated to sonic velocity within the halo itself, which leads to a rapid decay of radio luminosity and a reduced contribution of these intrinsically weaker sources to the observed LRLF.

Item Type:Article
Source:Copyright of this article belongs to Nature Publishing Group.
ID Code:13126
Deposited On:11 Nov 2010 06:49
Last Modified:04 Jan 2012 15:43

Repository Staff Only: item control page