From outskirts to core: the suppression and activation of radio AGN around galaxy clusters

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Abstract
To investigate how the radio-identified active galactic nuclei (AGN) fraction varies with cluster-centric radius, we present the projected and de-projected distributions of a large sample of LOFAR-identified radio AGN out to 30R500 around galaxy clusters. The AGN fraction experiences a |$\sim 25\%$| increase above the field fraction in the cluster outskirts at around 10R500, a |$\sim 20\%$| decrease around ∼0.5R500, and an increase of over three times the field fraction value in the very cluster core. We label these three radial windows the outer, intermediate and inner regions respectively, and investigate how these radial trends might arise due to intrinsic properties of the AGN population. The only difference seen in host galaxy stellar mass is in the inner region, where there is a much higher fraction of massive host galaxies. Analysing AGN radio luminosity, regions with a higher AGN fraction tend to have more radio luminous AGN, and vice versa. We discuss the physical mechanisms that might be responsible for these results with reference to the literature.
Funding Information
  • STFC (ST/X000982/1)

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