The duty cycle of radio galaxies revealed by LOFAR: remnant and restarted radio source populations in the Lockman Hole

Apr 19, 2020
12 pages
Published in:
  • Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 496 (2020) 2, 1706-1717
  • Published: Aug 1, 2020
e-Print:
DOI:

Citations per year

20202021202220232024024681012
Abstract: (Oxford University Press)
Feedback from radio jets associated with active galactic nuclei (AGNs) plays a profound role in the evolution of galaxies. Kinetic power of these radio jets appears to show temporal variation, but the mechanism(s) responsible for this process are not yet clear. Recently, the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) has uncovered large populations of active, remnant, and restarted radio jet populations. By focusing on LOFAR data in the Lockman Hole, in this work we use the Radio AGNs in Semi-Analytic Environments (RAiSE) dynamical model to present the first self-consistent modelling analysis of active, remnant, and restarted radio source populations. Consistent with other recent work, our models predict that remnant radio lobes fade quickly. Any high (>10 per cent) observed fraction of remnant and restarted sources therefore requires a dominant population of short-lived jets. We speculate that this could plausibly be provided by feedback-regulated accretion.
Note:
  • 14 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. Companion paper to Jurlin et al., also in today's arXiv posting
  • galaxies: active
  • galaxies: jets
  • radio continuum: galaxies