The merger environment of the wide angle tail hosting cluster A562

Abstract

We present a Chandra X-ray observation and Very Large Array radio observations of the nearby (z = 0.11) galaxy cluster A562 and the wide angle tail (WAT) radio source 0647+693. The cluster displays signatures of an ongoing merger leading to the bending of the WAT source including an elongation of the X-ray surface brightness distribution along the line that bisects the WAT, an excess of displaced gas found between the radio lobes, and anisotropies within the intracluster medium projected temperature and abundance distributions. The most likely geometry of the ongoing interaction is a head-on merger occurring along the WAT bending axis. By combining observable properties of A562 and 0647+693 with common values for the conditions within merging clusters at the time of core crossing, we constrain the internal density (ρJ = 0.001 ρICM) of the jets and plasma flow velocity within the lobes (vr = 0.02c-0.03c) of the WAT source. © 2011 The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.