[Previous] | [Session 51] | [Next]
A. Young, L. Rudnick (U. Minnesota), K. Makishima, M. Tashiro, N. Iyomoto (U. Tokyo), N. Kassim (NRL), D. Worrall (Bristol)
We present preliminary results from VLA* observations on three radio galaxies: Fornax A, 3C386 (both FRIs) and 3C98 (FRII). All of these sources show large relaxed structures, largely devoid of hotspots and jets, and therefore likely to be statically confined by their surrounding medium. In order to compare internal pressures to those derived from any thermal extended X-ray emission, and to connect the radio emitting electrons to non-thermal X-ray emission from the Inverse Compton process, we produce spectral shapes as a function of position in these sources. Together, this information could be used in the future to calculate internal pressures by breaking the synchrotron degeneracy of particle density and magnetic field strength, and examine the mutual interactions between the relativistic and surrounding thermal plasmas.
*The VLA is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated by NRAO/AUI. This work is supported, in part, by NSF grant AST96-16964 at the University of Minnesota.