GRACE

Giant Radio galaxies and their duty cycle

Giants in the sky

Giant radio galaxies (GRG) are one of the most spectacular manifestation of astrophysical jets, showing plasma ejecta with an extension up to Mpc. However, the conditions allowings such a growth are still unclear, and may be linked to a particularly favourable environment, to peculiar accretion/ejection conditions allowing a very long and continuos radio activity, or to more than one radio cycle. The aim of the GRACE project, carried out by the GRAL group in Rome, is to study the radio duty cycle in a sample of giant radio galaxies selected from high energies (hard-X) catalogues produced by the INTEGRAL/IBIS and Swift/BAT space missions.

In this webpage, we collect the information on the GRG sample we are studying since 2016, providing reference works and highlights on our current results.


Team members


The sample

Bassani et al. (2016) performed a combined radio/hard X-ray study of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) population selected in the hard X-ray band by the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL)/the Imager on Board the INTEGRAL Satellite (IBIS) and Swift/the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) surveys, finding 64 objects that match radio galaxies with known redshifts. The NRAO Very Large Array (VLA) Sky Survey (NVSS) and Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey (SUMSS) maps allowed an estimate of the projected linear size, and it turned out that 15 of them (i.e., ∼25% of the sample) can be classified as GRG. In the following, the GRG sample we are studying in detail since 2016. We recently added some new objects, following the catalogue update by Bassani et al. (2020). 


Name                          RA                         DEC                    z                 LS (kpc)

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B3 0309+411B          03:13:01.9           +41:20:01          0.134        1150

J0318+684                03:18:19.1           +68:29:32.2       0.09          1523

PKS 0707–35            07:09:13.8           -36:01:19.9        0.111        1016

4C 73.08                     09:49:46.0          +73:14:23.1       0.058          936

B2 1144+35B             11:47:22.3         +35:01:09.1        0.06          1200

HE 1434–1600          14:36:49.6          -16:13:40.4         0.144       1823

IGR J14488–4008    14:48:50.98        -40:08:47.12      0.123       1540

4C +63.22                   15:23:45.8         +63:39:24.8        0.204         709

Mrk 1498                     16:28:03.8        +51:46:30.7        0.05         1204

4C +34.47                    17:23:20.6        +34:18:00.3        0.206         817

IGR J17488–2338      17:48:38.9        -23:35:26.8         0.24         1415

PKS 2014–55              20:18:01.0        -55:39:28.8         0.06         1484

4C +74.26                    20:42:36.7        +75:08:02.7        0.104       1211

PKS 2331–240            23:33:55.25     -23:43:41.76       0.048       1174

PKS 2356–61              23:59:03.9       -60:54:59.7          0.096         718

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Recently added objects from Bassani et al. (2020)


Name                          RA                         DEC                    z         LS (kpc)

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SWIFT J0225.8+5946 02:26:26.15 +59:27:53.0 - -

SWIFT J0632.1-5404 06:32:00.95 -54:04:55.89 0.20 1003

SWIFT J0636.5-20368 06:36:32.16 -20:34:53.35 0.05 950

SWIFT J0801.7+4764 08:01:31.96 +47:36:16.06 0.16 970

SWIFT J1153.9+5848 11:53:23.927 +58:31:38.501 0.20 840

SWIFT J1238.4+5349 12:38:07.77 +53:25:55.90 0.35 780

IGR J13107–5626 13:10:36.90 -56 26 56.31 0.09 710

SWIFT J1503.7+6850 15:04:13.10 +68:56:10.5 0.32 870

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Results Highlights

Papers

Slides