Discovery of rare double-lobe radio galaxies hosted in spiral galaxies

Abstract

Double-lobe radio galaxies in the local Universe have traditionally been found to be hosted in elliptical or lenticular galaxies. We report the discovery of four spiral-host double-lobe radio galaxies (J0836+0532, J1159+5820, J1352+3126 and J1649+2635) that are discovered by cross-matching a large sample of 187005 spiral galaxies from SDSS DR7 to the full catalogues of FIRST and NVSS. J0836+0532 is reported for the first time. The host galaxies are forming stars at an average rate of 1.7 $-$ 10 M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ and possess Super Massive Black Holes (SMBHs) with masses of a few times 10$^{8}$ M$_{\odot}$. Their radio morphologies are similar to FR-II radio galaxies with total projected linear sizes ranging from 86 kpc to 420 kpc, but their total 1.4 GHz radio luminosities are only in the range 10$^{24}$ $-$ 10$^{25}$ W Hz$^{-1}$. We propose that the formation of spiral-host double-lobe radio galaxies can be attributed to more than one factor, such as the occurrence of strong interactions, mergers, and the presence of unusually massive SMBHs, such that the spiral structures are not destroyed. Only one of our sources (J1649+2635) is found in a cluster environment, indicating that processes other than accretion through cooling flows e.g., galaxy-galaxy mergers or interactions could be plausible scenarios for triggering radio-loud AGN activity in spiral galaxies.