Discovery of a giant radio halo in a new planck galaxy cluster PLCKG171.9-40.7

Abstract

We report the discovery of a giant radio halo in a new, hot, X-ray luminous galaxy cluster recently found by Planck, PLCKG171.9-40.7. The radio halo was found using Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope observations at 235 MHz and 610 MHz, and in the 1.4 GHz data from an NRAO Very Large Array Sky Survey pointing that we have reanalyzed. The diffuse radio emission is coincident with the cluster X-ray emission, and has an extent of ∼1 Mpc and a radio power of ∼5 × 1024 W Hz-1 at 1.4 GHz. Its integrated radio spectrum has a slope of α ≈ 1.8 between 235 MHz and 1.4 GHz, steeper than that of a typical giant halo. The analysis of the archival XMM-Newton X-ray data shows that the cluster is hot (∼10 keV) and disturbed, consistent with X-ray-selected clusters hosting radio halos. This is the first giant radio halo discovered in one of the new clusters found by Planck. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..