RAD@home citizen science discovery of an active galactic nucleus spewing a large unipolar radio bubble on to its merging companion galaxy. Issue 1 (12th October 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hota, Ananda; Dabhade, Pratik; Vaddi, Sravani; Konar, Chiranjib; Pal, Sabyasachi; Gulati, Mamta; Stalin, C S; Avinash, Ck; Kumar, Avinash; Rajoria, Megha; Purohit, Arundhati
• Is Part Of: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 517:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: L86
• Page End: L91
• Publication Date: 2022-10-12
• Subjects: galaxies: active -- galaxies: evolution -- galaxies: interactions -- (galaxies:) quasars: supermassive black holes -- radio continuum: galaxies; Astronomy -- Research -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/mnrasl/slac116
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1745-3933

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback during galaxy merger has been the most favoured model to explain black hole–galaxy co-evolution. However, how the AGN-driven jet/wind/radiation is coupled with the gas of the merging galaxies, which leads to positive feedback, momentarily enhanced star formation, and subsequently negative feedback, a decline in star formation, is poorly understood. Only a few cases are known where the jet and companion galaxy interaction leads to minor off-axis distortions in the jets and enhanced star formation in the gas-rich minor companions. Here, we briefly report one extraordinary case, RAD12, discovered by RAD@home citizen science collaboratory, where for the first time a radio jet–driven bubble (∼ 137 kpc) is showing a symmetric reflection after hitting the incoming galaxy which is not a gas-rich minor but a gas-poor early-type galaxy in a major merger. Surprisingly, neither positive feedback nor any radio lobe on the counter jet side, if any, is detected. It is puzzling if RAD12 is a genuine one-sided jet or a case of radio lobe trapped, compressed and re-accelerated by shocks during the merger. This is the first imaging study of RAD12 presenting follow-up with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, archival MeerKAT radio data and Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope optical data.