The ultra low-frequency spectral properties of bright extended radio galaxies in the 3CRR catalogue

Boxelaar, J. M., Gasperin, F. De, Hardcastle, M. J., Rubeis, E. De and van Weeren, R. J. (2026) The ultra low-frequency spectral properties of bright extended radio galaxies in the 3CRR catalogue. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 711: A132. ISSN 0004-6361
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Context. Active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets are fundamental drivers of galaxy evolution, injecting kinetic energy into their environments. The large-scale morphology and spectral properties of these radio galaxies are consequences of complex particle acceleration, energy loss, and absorption processes. While the shape of the synchrotron spectrum encodes the plasma's energetic history, understanding the physics of particle acceleration and duty cycles has historically been limited by a lack of well-resolved observations at ultra-low frequencies (2.5. The analysis involves constructing detailed spectral index maps and utilising radio colour-colour diagrams to interpret spectral shapes and constrain ageing model parameters across the radio lobes. Results. This study presents the ultra-low frequency spectral index maps for this sample. For FR I galaxies, spectral indices range from ~0.5 near the core (consistent with first-order Fermi acceleration) to > 1.0 in the lobes. For FR II galaxies, hotspots exhibit steep low-frequency spectra (0.5 - 0.9), suggesting complex acceleration or absorption effects.


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