X-ray Properties of Clusters with Wide-Angle Tail Radio Sources: Abell 562 and Abell 1446
Edmund Douglass (Boston University) , E.L. Blanton (Boston University), T. E. Clarke (NRL, Interferometrics, Inc.), Craig L. Sarazin (University of Virginia)
Named for their characteristic C-shape, wide angle tail (WAT) radio sources are assumed to be formed by the interaction between the radio jets and the intracluster medium in which they are embedded. We present Chandra observations of two clusters that host WAT radio sources, Abell 562 and Abell 1446. While both clusters display isothermal radial temperature profiles and a typically smooth decline in pressure and density with radius, both exhibit evidence for some degree of merger activity and WAT/ICM interaction. We find that the clusters have an excess of emission offset from the cluster core and WAT hosting galaxy. There is significant two-dimensional temperature substructure within the central regions of the clusters as is consistent with infalling clumps or galaxy groups, while the surface brightness distribution of the inner regions of the clusters reflects that of unrelaxed systems. It is possible that this merger activity may be leading to the shaping of the bent radio sources within each cluster. In addition there is evidence that the lobes of both WAT sources have carved out cavities within the intracluster gas.