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[11.05] Large Scale Environments Containing Wide Angle Tail Radio Sources

K. S. Krughoff, D. J. Batuski (U. of Maine), A. L. Melott (U. of Kansas), J. M. Hill (U. of Ariz.)

Wide angle tail(WAT) radio sources have slightly bent radio lobes. In Abell clusters of galaxies, this bending could be associated with a bulk flow of inter-cluster gas through the cluster containing the WAT. Novikov, et al. (1999) provided evidence that the flow of inter-cluster gas is aligned with the semi-major axis of the local supercluster. This suggests that the preferential bending of WATs may be an indication of mass flow that is a remnant of large-scale structure formation.

We have compiled an enlarged sample on which to employ statistical methods in order to strengthen or weaken previous assertions that WATs tend to be bent along supercluster axes. Using the MX spectrometer on the Bok 2.3m telescope, we have observed Abell clusters in regions surrounding 12 clusters containing WAT radio sources, thus enlarging the possible number of regions from the original study, which contained a different set of 12 regions. We present a new WAT-supercluster alignment study based on this enlarged sample of measured cluster neighborhoods.

This study has been partially funded by NASA, through the Maine Space Grant Consortium.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #3
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.