Speaker
Apply to be<br> consider for a student <br> award (Yes / No)?
Yes
Abstract content <br> (Max 300 words)
Bent tail radio sources(BTRS) have already been successfully used as tracers of galaxy clusters for redshifts of up to ~1. Of the sample of known BTRS, approximately 60 % are found in galaxy clusters while 40% are found in galaxy groups. The bent morphology in BTRS is believed to be caused by ram pressure resulting from the interaction of Active Galactic Nuclei(AGN) radio jets with the intra-cluster medium(ICM). Also, observation have shown that Narrow Angle Tail galaxies(NATs) are preferentially found to lie far from the cluster core, while Wide Angle Tail galaxies(WATs) have been primarily found around the galaxy cluster core.
We need to understand the environments where BTRS are found and how those environments contribute to the optical and radio morphology of BTRS. This would give us insights into the correlations between optical properties and radio properties and how they can help us improve the efficiency of using BTRS as tracers of galaxy clusters at high redshift. We use the MareNostrum Universe simulation to investigate the possibility of finding galaxies with enough ram pressure to cause the bent morphology using any correlations between the galaxies and their environments. We investigate a range of properties such as the galaxies' distance from the the cluster cores, peculiar velocities and ICM densities to gain insights into the probability of finding NATs and WATs in the universe. We present our results for galaxy cluster and galaxy group environments and compare them to observations.
Level for award<br> (Hons, MSc, <br> PhD)?
PhD
Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?
Yes
Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution
Dr. Kurt van der Heyden
University of Cape Town
