Garret Cotter

Abstract:

Recently, studies of brown dwarfs have demonstrated that they possess strong magnetic fields and have the potential to produce radio and optical auroral emissions powered by magnetospheric currents. This emission provides the only window on magnetic fields in the coolest brown dwarfs and identifying additional benchmark objects is key to constraining dynamo theory in this regime. To this end, we conducted a new red optical (6300-9700 Å) survey with the Keck telescopes looking for Hα emission from a sample of late L dwarfs and T dwarfs. Our survey gathered optical spectra for 29 targets, 18 of which did not have previous optical spectra in the literature, greatly expanding the number of moderate-resolution (R ∼ 2000) spectra available at these spectral types. Combining our sample with previous surveys, we confirm an Hα detection rate of 9.2± 2.1 3.5 % for L and T dwarfs in the optical spectral range of L4-T8. This detection rate is consistent with the recently measured detection rate for auroral radio emission from Kao et al., suggesting that geometrical selection effects due to the beaming of the radio emission are small or absent. We also provide the first detection of Hα emission from 2MASS 0036+1821, previously notable as the only electron cyclotron maser radio source without a confirmed detection of Hα emission. Finally, we also establish optical standards for spectral types T3 and T4, filling in the previous gap between T2 and T5.

Abstract:

We have discovered a previously unreported poor cluster of galaxies (RGZ-CL J0823.2+0333) through an unusual giant wide-angle tail radio galaxy found in the Radio Galaxy Zoo project. We obtained a spectroscopic redshift of z = 0.0897 for the E0-type host galaxy, 2MASX J08231289+0333016, leading to Mr = −22.6 and a 1.4 GHz radio luminosity density of L1.4 = 5.5 × 1024 W Hz−1. These radio and optical luminosities are typical for wide-angle tailed radio galaxies near the borderline between Fanaroff–Riley classes I and II. The projected largest angular size of ≈8 arcmin corresponds to 800 kpc and the full length of the source along the curved jets/trails is 1.1 Mpc in projection. X-ray data from the XMM–Newton archive yield an upper limit on the X-ray luminosity of the thermal emission surrounding RGZ J082312.9+033301 at 1.2–2.6 × 1043 erg s−1 for assumed intracluster medium temperatures of 1.0–5.0 keV. Our analysis of the environment surrounding RGZ J082312.9+033301 indicates that RGZ J082312.9+033301 lies within a poor cluster. The observed radio morphology suggests that (a) the host galaxy is moving at a significant velocity with respect to an ambient medium like that of at least a poor cluster, and that (b) the source may have had two ignition events of the active galactic nucleus with 107 yr in between. This reinforces the idea that an association between RGZ J082312.9+033301 and the newly discovered poor cluster exists.