Deep radio observations of galaxy clusters have revealed the existence of diffuse radio sources related to the presence of relativistic electrons and weak magnetic fields in the intracluster volume. The role played by this non-thermal intracluster component on the thermodynamical evolution of galaxy clusters is debated, with important implications for cosmological and astrophysical studies of the largest gravitationally bound structures of the Universe. The low surface brightness and steep spectra of diffuse cluster radio sources make them more easily detectable at low-frequencies. LOFAR is the first instrument able to detect diffuse radio emission in hundreds of massive galaxy clusters up to their formation epoch. We present the first observations of clusters imaged by LOFAR and the huge perspectives opened by this instrument for non-thermal cluster studies.
@article{arxiv.1210.1034,
title = {First LOFAR results on galaxy clusters},
author = {C. Ferrari and I. van Bemmel and A. Bonafede and L. Bîrzan and M. Brüggen and G. Brunetti and R. Cassano and J. Conway and F. De Gasperin and G. Heald and N. Jackson and G. Macario and J. McKean and A. R. Offringa and E. Orrù and R. Pizzo and D. A. Rafferty and H. J. A. Röttgering and A. Shulevski and C. Tasse and S. van der Tol and R. J. van Weeren and M. Wise and J. E. van Zwieten},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.1034},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
Proceedings of the 2012 week of the French Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics (SF2A) held in Nice, June 5th-8th