Radio-loud active galactic nucleus: Is there a link between luminosity and cluster environment?

Abstract

We present here the first results from the Chandra ERA (Environments of Radio-loud AGN) Large Project, characterizing the cluster environments of a sample of 26 radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at z ∼ 0.5 that covers three decades of radio luminosity. This is the first systematic X-ray environmental study at a single epoch, and has allowed us to examine the relationship between radio luminosity and cluster environment without the problems of Malmquist bias. We have found a weak correlation between radio luminosity and host cluster X-ray luminosity, as well as tentative evidence that this correlation is driven by the subpopulation of low-excitation radio galaxies, with high-excitation radio galaxies showing no significant correlation. The considerable scatter in the environments may be indicative of complex relationships not currently included in feedback models. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..