Seeing the forest and the trees: A radio investigation of the ULIRG Mrk 273
Journal article, 2022
Galaxy mergers have been observed to trigger nuclear activity by feeding gas to the central supermassive black hole. One such class of objects are Ultra Luminous InfraRed Galaxies (ULIRGs), which are mostly late stage major mergers of gas-rich galaxies. Recently, large-scale (100 kpc) radio continuum emission has been detected in a select number of ULIRGs, all of which also harbour powerful Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). This hints at the presence of large-scale radio emission being evidence for nuclear activity. Exploring the origin of this radio emission and its link to nuclear activity requires high sensitivity multi-frequency data. We present such an analysis of the ULIRG Mrk 273. Using the International LOFAR telescope (ILT), we detected spectacular large-scale arcs in this system. This detection includes, for the first time, a giant 190 kpc arc in the north. We propose these arcs are fuelled by a low power radio AGN triggered by the merger. We also identified a bright 45 kpc radio ridge, which is likely related to the ionised gas nebula in that region. We combined this with high sensitivity data from APERture Tile In Focus (Apertif) and archival data from the Very Large Array (VLA) to explore the spectral properties. The ILT simultaneously allowed us to probe the nucleus at a resolution of 0.3, where we detected three components, and, for the first time, diffuse emission around these components. Combining this with archival high frequency VLA images of the nucleus allowed us to detect absorption in one component, and a steep spectrum radio AGN in another. We then extrapolate from this case study to the importance of investigating the presence of radio emission in more ULIRGs and what it can tell us about the link between mergers and the presence of radio activity.
Galaxies: active
Radio continuum: galaxies
Galaxies: jets
Galaxies: individual: Mrk 273
Galaxies: interactions
Techniques: high angular resolution
Author
P. Kukreti
University of Groningen
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
R. Morganti
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
University of Groningen
M. Bondi
Istituto di Radioastronomia
T. Oosterloo
University of Groningen
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
C. Tadhunter
University of Sheffield
L. Morabito
Durham University
E. A.K. Adams
University of Groningen
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
B. Adebahr
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
W.J.G. de Blok
University of Cape Town
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
University of Groningen
F. De Gasperin
Istituto di Radioastronomia
University of Hamburg
A. Drabent
Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg
Kelley Michelle Hess
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
University of Groningen
Marianna Ivashina
Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks
A. M. Kutkin
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
Russian Academy of Sciences
Mika
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
L. C. Oostrum
Netherlands eScience Center
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy
T. W. Shimwell
Leiden University
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
J. M. van der Hulst
University of Groningen
J. van Leeuwen
Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
R. van Weeren
Leiden University
D. Vohl
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy
J. Ziemke
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
University of Oslo
Astronomy and Astrophysics
0004-6361 (ISSN) 1432-0746 (eISSN)
Vol. 664 A25Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Bioinformatics (Computational Biology)
Signal Processing
DOI
10.1051/0004-6361/202243174