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A.M. Koekemoer (NASA/GSFC)
The immediate environment of radio galaxies plays an important role in determining their overall properties, specifically in terms of confinement and long-term evolution of the sources. The extent of interactions between radio galaxies and the ambient medium can be traced by examining the properties of the radio synchrotron lobes and jets, together with the energetics and ionization of optical line-emitting gas that is often associated with these sources. Other effects, for example star formation induced by the passage of the radio jets, have also been inferred in a number of objects. Here I present results from a program of detailed emission-line imaging and spectrophotometry of radio galaxies, making use of spatially resolved line ratios and gas kinematics to determine the physical properties of the gas and investigate its energetic relationship with the radio plasma. The observations are compared with results from ionization models using the codes MAPPINGS-II and CLOUDY, as well as hydrodynamic models of interactions between the radio jets / lobes and ambient gas. The implications are discussed in the context of the effects of the environment on the evolution of radio sources, together with the reciprocal impact of radio sources upon their environments.
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s follows:
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