Ian Heywood

Abstract:

We report the discovery of a highly circularly polarized, variable, steep-spectrum pulsar in the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) Variables and Slow Transients (VAST) survey. The pulsar is located about 1° from the center of the Large Magellanic Cloud, and has a significant fractional circular polarization of ∼20%. We discovered pulsations with a period of 322.5 ms, dispersion measure (DM) of 157.5 pc cm-3, and rotation measure (RM) of +456 rad m-2 using observations from the MeerKAT and the Parkes telescopes. This DM firmly places the source, PSR J0523-7125, in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This RM is extreme compared to other pulsars in the LMC (more than twice that of the largest previously reported one). The average flux density of ∼1 mJy at 1400 MHz and ∼25 mJy at 400 MHz places it among the most luminous radio pulsars known. It likely evaded previous discovery because of its very steep radio spectrum (spectral index α ≈ -3, where S ν ∝ ν α ) and broad pulse profile (duty cycle ≳35%). We discuss implications for searches for unusual radio sources in continuum images, as well as extragalactic pulsars in the Magellanic Clouds and beyond. Our result highlighted the possibility of identifying pulsars, especially extreme pulsars, from radio continuum images. Future large-scale radio surveys will give us an unprecedented opportunity to discover more pulsars and potentially the most distant pulsars beyond the Magellanic Clouds.

Abstract:

Context. The Shapley Supercluster (äzaa 0.048) contains several tens of gravitationally bound clusters and groups, making it an ideal subject for radio studies of cluster mergers. Aims. We used new high sensitivity radio observations to investigate the less energetic events of mass assembly in the Shapley Supercluster from supercluster down to galactic scales. Methods. We created total intensity images of the full region between A3558 and A3562, from a 14;230 to a 14;1650 MHz, using ASKAP, MeerKAT and the GMRT, with sensitivities ranging from a 14;6 to a 14;100 μJy beama 1. We performed a detailed morphological and spectral study of the extended emission features, complemented with ESO-VST optical imaging and X-ray data from XMM-Newton. Results. We report the first GHz frequency detection of extremely low brightness intercluster diffuse emission on a a 14;1 Mpc scale connecting a cluster and a group, namely: A3562 and the group SC 1329a 313. It is morphologically similar to the X-ray emission in the region. We also found (1) a radio tail generated by ram pressure stripping in the galaxy SOS 61086 in SC 1329a 313; (2) a head-tail radio galaxy, whose tail is broken and culminates in a misaligned bar; (3) ultrasteep diffuse emission at the centre of A3558. Finally (4), we confirm the ultra-steep spectrum nature of the radio halo in A3562. Conclusions. Our study strongly supports the scenario of a flyby of SC 1329a 313 north of A3562 into the supercluster core. This event perturbed the centre of A3562, leaving traces of this interaction in the form of turbulence between A3562 and SC 1329a 313, at the origin of the radio bridge and eventually affecting the evolution of individual supercluster galaxies by triggering ram pressure stripping. Our work shows that minor mergers can be spectacular and have the potential to generate diffuse radio emission that carries important information on the formation of large-scale structures in the Universe.

Abstract:

We study the 3D axis of rotation (3D spin) of 77 Hi galaxies from the MIGHTEE-Hi Early Science observations, and its relation to the filaments of the cosmic web. For this Hi-selected sample, the alignment between the spin axis and the closest filament (|cos ψ|) is higher for galaxies closer to the filaments, with 〈|cos ψ|〉 = 0.66 ± 0.04 for galaxies <5 Mpc from their closest filament compared to 〈|cos ψ|〉 = 0.37 ± 0.08 for galaxies at 5 < d < 10 Mpc. We find that galaxies with a low Hi-to-stellar mass ratio (log10(MHi/M∗) < 0.11) are more aligned with their closest filaments, with 〈|cos ψ|〉 = 0.58 ± 0.04; whilst galaxies with (log10(MHi/M∗) > 0.11) tend to be mis-aligned, with 〈|cos ψ|〉 = 0.44 ± 0.04. We find tentative evidence that the spin axis of Hi-selected galaxies tend to be aligned with associated filaments (d < 10 Mpc), but this depends on the gas fractions. Galaxies that have accumulated more stellar mass compared to their gas mass tend towards stronger alignment. Our results suggest that those galaxies that have accrued high gas fraction with respect to their stellar mass may have had their spin axis alignment with the filament disrupted by a recent gas-rich merger, whereas the spin vector for those galaxies in which the neutral gas has not been strongly replenished through a recent merger tend to orientate towards alignment with the filament. We also investigate the spin transition between galaxies with a high Hi content and a low Hi content at a threshold of MHI ≈ 109.5 M⊙ found in simulations; however, we find no evidence for such a transition with the current data.