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Seeing the forest and the trees: a radio investigation of the ULIRG Mrk 273

Kukreti, Pranav; Morganti, Raffaella; Bondi, Marco; Oosterloo, Tom; Tadhunter, Clive; Morabito, Leah K.; Adams, E.A.K.; Adebahr, B.; de Blok, W.J.G.; de Gasperin, F.; Drabent, A.; Hess, K.M.; Ivashina, M.V.; Kutkin, A.; Mika, Á. M.; Oostrum, Leon; Shimwell, T.W.; van der Hulst, J.M.; van Leeuwen, Joeri; van Weeren, R.J.; Vohl, Dany; Ziemke, J.

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Authors

Pranav Kukreti

Raffaella Morganti

Marco Bondi

Tom Oosterloo

Clive Tadhunter

E.A.K. Adams

B. Adebahr

W.J.G. de Blok

F. de Gasperin

A. Drabent

K.M. Hess

M.V. Ivashina

A. Kutkin

Á. M. Mika

Leon Oostrum

T.W. Shimwell

J.M. van der Hulst

Joeri van Leeuwen

R.J. van Weeren

Dany Vohl

J. Ziemke



Abstract

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.

Citation

Kukreti, P., Morganti, R., Bondi, M., Oosterloo, T., Tadhunter, C., Morabito, L. K., …Ziemke, J. (2022). Seeing the forest and the trees: a radio investigation of the ULIRG Mrk 273. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 664, Article A25. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202243174

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 4, 2022
Online Publication Date Aug 3, 2022
Publication Date 2022-08
Deposit Date Aug 2, 2022
Publicly Available Date Aug 19, 2022
Journal Astronomy & Astrophysics
Print ISSN 0004-6361
Electronic ISSN 1432-0746
Publisher EDP Sciences
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 664
Article Number A25
DOI https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202243174
Related Public URLs https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.02847

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