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E. Grundstrom, L. Rudnick (University of Minnesota), K. M. Blundell (University of Oxford)
We present our spectral analysis of the Fanaroff-Riley II (FRII) sources 3C171, 3C172, and 3C356. These sources were observed with the VLA* and MERLIN between 1982 and 1992 in various combinations of 2 m, 20 cm, 6 cm, 3.6 cm and 2 cm wavelengths. Through the application of spectral tomography, we have not detected any substructure that may indicate two (or more) separate overlapping spectral electron populations. Using color-color diagrams, we fit standard synchrotron aging models to each source's spectrum. For 3C172 and 3C356, lobes and hotspots on both sides of each source are consistent with the same low energy injection index. The heavily distorted source 3C171, by contrast shows very different spectral behaviors in its two lobes. We will also discuss the implications of these findings on current ideas regarding particle acceleration in radio galaxies.
Data on these sources were kindly provided by P. Alexander, R. Laing, I. Fernini and J.P. Leahy.
*The VLA is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated by NRAO/AUI. This work is supported, in part, by NSF grant AST00-71167 at the University of Minnesota.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: erika@astro.umn.edu