Probing the origin of low-frequency radio emission in PG quasars with the uGMRT - I

Silpa, S.; Kharb, P.; Ho, L. C.; Ishwara-Chandra, C. H.; Jarvis, M. E. und Harrison, C. (2020): Probing the origin of low-frequency radio emission in PG quasars with the uGMRT - I. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Bd. 499, Nr. 4: S. 5826-5839

Abstract

We present the results from 685 MHz observations with the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) of 22 quasars belonging to the Palomar-Green (PG) quasar sample. Only four sources reveal extended radio structures on similar to 10-30 kpc scales, while the rest are largely a combination of a radio core unresolved at the uGMRT resolution of similar to 3-5 arcsec, surrounded by diffuse emission on few kpc to similar to 10 kpc scales. A few sources reveal signatures of barely resolved jets and lobes in their spectral index images that are created using the 685 MHz uGMRT data and similar resolution GHz-frequency data from the Very Large Array. On the basis of their position on the radio-IR correlation as well as the spectral index images, we find that the radio emission in the two radio-loud (RL) quasars and nearly one-third of the radio-quiet (RQ) quasars is active galactic nucleus (AGN) dominated whereas the remaining sources appear to have significant contributions from stellar-related processes along with the AGN. While the two RL sources exhibit inverted spectral index in their cores, the RQ sources exhibit a range of spectral indices varying from flat to steep (-0.1 greater than or similar to alpha(R) greater than or similar to -1.1) indicating the presence of unresolved jets/lobes or winds. Except for a significant correlation between the 685 MHz radio luminosity and the Eddington ratio, we do not find strong correlations between other 685 MHz radio properties and black hole (BH) properties in the RQ PG sources. This lack of correlations could be explained by the contribution of stellar-related emission, or radio emission from previous AGN activity episodes that may not be related to the current BH activity state.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Physik
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 530 Physik
• ISSN: 0035-8711
• Sprache: Englisch