Discovery of rare double-lobe radio galaxies hosted in spiral galaxies. Issue 2 (6th October 2015) - Singh, Veeresh
Abstract : Double-lobe radio galaxies in the local Universe have traditionally been found to be hosted in elliptical or lenticular galaxies. We report the discovery of four spiral-host double-lobe radio galaxies (J0836+0532, J1159+5820, J1352+3126, and J1649+2635) that are discovered by cross-matching a large sample of 187 005 spiral galaxies from SDSS DR7 (Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7) to the full catalogues of FIRST (Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm) and NVSS (NRAO VLA Sky Survey). J0836+0532 is reported for the first time. The host galaxies are forming stars at an average rate of 1.7–10 M⊙ yr −1 and possess supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with masses of a few times 10 8 M⊙ . Their radio morphologies are similar to Fanaroff–Riley type II radio galaxies with total projected linear sizes ranging from 86 to 420 kpc, but their total 1.4-GHz radio luminosities are only in the range 10 24 –10 25 W Hz −1 . We propose that the formation of spiral-host double-lobe radio galaxies can be attributed to more than one factor, such as the occurrence of strong interactions, mergers, and the presence of unusually massive SMBHs, such that the spiral structures are not destroyed. Only one of our sources (J1649+2635) is found in a cluster environment, indicating that processes other than accretion through cooling flows e.g. galaxy–galaxy mergers or interactions could be plausible scenarios for triggering radio-loud active galactic nuclei activity in spiral galaxies.