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# Modelling the non–thermal emission from galaxy clusters

## 1. Introduction

The most important evidence for relativistic electrons in clusters of galaxies comes from the diffuse synchrotron radio emission observed in about 35 % of the clusters selected with X–ray luminosity $`>10^{45}`$erg s<sup>-1</sup> (e.g., Giovannini, Tordi, Feretti, 1999; Giovannini & Feretti 2001). The diffuse emissions are referred to as radio halos and/or radio mini–halos when they appear projected on the center of the cluster, while they are called relics when they are found in the cluster periphery.

The difficulty in explaining the extended radio halos arises from the combination of their $``$Mpc size, and the short radiative lifetime of the radio emitting electrons. Indeed, the diffusion time necessary to the radio electrons to cover such distances is orders of magnitude greater than their radiative lifetime. To solve this problem Jaffe (1977) proposed continuous in situ reacceleration of the relativistic electrons. The in situ reacceleration scenario was quantitatively reconsidered by Schlickeiser et al.(1987) who successfully reproduce the integrated radio spectrum of the Coma halo. In the framework of the in situ reacceleration model, Harris et al.(1980) first suggested that cluster mergers may provide the energetics necessary to reaccelerate the relativistic particles. The role of mergers in particle acceleration and in the amplification of the magnetic fields was than investigated in more detail by De Young (1992) and Tribble (1993). Alternatively, to avoid the energy loss problem of the radio electrons, Dennison (1980) first suggested that the radio emission in radio halos may be emitted by a population of secondary electrons continuously injected by hadronic interactions. Primary and the secondary electron models still constitute the basis of the more recent theoretical works developed on the argument (see Sect.3). Additional evidence for the presence of non–thermal phenomena in clusters of galaxies comes from the detection in a number of cases of EUV excess emission (e.g., Bowyer et al. 1996; Lieu et al., 1996; Berghöfer et al., 2000; Bonamente et al., 2001) and of HXR excess emission in the case of the Coma cluster and A2256 (Fusco–Femiano et al., 1999, 2000; Rephaeli et al., 1999; Rephaeli & Gruber, 2002; Fusco–Femiano, this meeting). While, with the exception of the Coma and of the Virgo clusters, the EUV detections are still controversial (e.g., Berghöfer et al., 2000; Berghöfer, Bowyer, Nevalainen, this meeting), the HXR detections are quite robust as they are independently obtained by different groups and with different X–ray observatories (BeppoSAX, RXTE). On the other hand, while there is agreement on the IC origin at least of the most significant cases of EUV excess emission (e.g., Hwang 1997; Bowyer & Bergöfer 1998; Ensslin & Bierman 1998; Sarazin & Lieu 1998; Atoyan & Völk 2000; Brunetti et al. 2001b, Petrosian 2001, Tsay et al., 2002), the origin of the XHR is still debated. The XHR excess may be generated by IC scattering of relativistic electrons off the CMB photons (Fusco–Femiano et al., 1999,2000; Rephaeli et al., 1999; Völk & Atoyan 1999; Brunetti et al.2001a; Petrosian 2001; Fujita & Sarazin 2001). Alternatively XHR might also result from bremsstrahlung emission from a population of supra–thermal electrons (e.g., Ensslin, Lieu, Biermann 1999; Blasi 2000; Dogiel 2000; Sarazin & Kempner 2000). Both the IC model and the bremsstrahlung interpretation have problems : the first one would require cluster magnetic field strengths smaller than that inferred from RM observations (e.g., Clarke, Kronberg, Böringer 2001), the second one would require a too large amount of energy to mantain a substantial fraction of the thermal electrons far from the thermal equilibrium for more than $`10^8`$yrs (e.g., Petrosian, 2001). In this contribution we will describe the populations of relativistic electrons expected in clusters of galaxies and we will focus on the origin of radio halos and HXR emission from galaxy clusters. We refer to the contribution by Ensslin for the origin of radio relics and to the contributions by Bowyer for a review on the EUV excesses.

## 2. Competing mechanisms at work

Before discussing the origin of the emitting electrons in galaxy clusters, it is convenient to briefly review the basic processes which modify the energy and spectrum of the relativistic electrons. It is important to underline that the efficiency of these processes is related to the energy of the electrons in a way that depends on the particular process so that the time evolution of electrons with different energies is dominated by different processes. More specifically relativistic electrons with energy $`mc^2\gamma `$ in the intracluster medium (ICM) lose energy via two main processes:

a) ionization losses and Coulomb collisions :

$$\left(\frac{d\gamma }{dt}\right)_{\mathrm{ion}}^{}=1.2\times 10^{12}n_{\mathrm{th}}\left[1+\frac{\mathrm{ln}(\gamma /n_{\mathrm{th}})}{75}\right]$$
(1)
where $`n_{\mathrm{th}}`$ is the number density of the thermal plasma.

b) synchrotron and IC radiation :

$$\left(\frac{d\gamma }{dt}\right)_{\mathrm{syn}+\mathrm{ic}}^{}=1.3\times 10^{20}\gamma ^2\left[\left(\frac{B_{\mu G}}{3.2}\right)^2\frac{\mathrm{sin}^2\theta }{2/3}+(1+z)^4\right]$$
(2)
where $`B_{\mu G}`$ is the magnetic field strength in $`\mu G`$, and $`\theta `$ is the pitch angle of the emitting electrons.

On the other hand, the electrons in the ICM can be re–accelerated by several mechanisms. Two relevant cases in clusters of galaxies are shock acceleration and acceleration via wave – particle interaction (e.g., MHD or HD turbulence).

a) shock acceleration (e.g., Blandford & Eichler, 1987) yields an energy gain :

$$\left(\frac{d\gamma }{dt}\right)_{\mathrm{sh}}^+\gamma \frac{U_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{f}\left(\frac{f1}{f+1}\right)\frac{1}{3𝒦(\gamma )}$$
(3)
$`𝒦(\gamma )`$ is the spatial diffusion coefficient, $`U_{}`$ is the velocity of the plasma in the region before the shock discontinuity (measured in the shock frame and in unit of $`c`$), and $`f`$ is the shock compression ratio.

b) Acceleration via turbulence: if the resonance scattering condition is satisfied (e.g. Hamilton & Petrosian 1992), turbulent Alfven waves can accelerate electrons via resonant pitch angle scattering. A power law energy spectrum of the Alfven waves:

$$P(k)=b\frac{B^2}{8\pi }\frac{s1}{k_o}\left(\frac{k}{k_o}\right)^s$$
(4)
in the range $`k_o<k<k_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is assumed, where $`k`$ is the wave number ($`k_o<<k_{\mathrm{max}}`$) and $`b`$ is a normalization factor indicating the fraction of the energy density of the magnetic field $`B`$ in energy of waves. Under this assumption it can be shown that the systematic energy gain is (e.g., Blasi 2000; Ohno et al. 2002):

$$\left(\frac{d\gamma }{dt}\right)_{\mathrm{A}\mathrm{tur}}^+b\frac{\pi }{c}\left(1\frac{1}{s}\right)v_\mathrm{A}^2\left(\frac{eB}{m_\mathrm{e}c^2}\right)^{2s}k_o^{s1}\times \gamma ^{s1}$$
(5)
where $`v_\mathrm{A}`$ is the Alfven velocity.

MHD turbulence can also accelerate relativistic particles in radio sources via Fermi–like processes (e.g., Lacombe 1977; Ferrari et al. 1979). Under the simple assumption of a quasi–monochromatic turbulent scale responsible for particle acceleration (e.g., Gitti, Brunetti, Setti 2002) the systematic energy gain is :

$$\left(\frac{d\gamma }{dt}\right)_{\mathrm{F}\mathrm{tur}}^+4\times 10^{11}\gamma \frac{v_{\mathrm{A}}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{l}\left(\frac{\delta B}{B}\right)^2$$
(6)
where $`l`$ is the distance between two peaks of turbulence and $`\delta B/B`$ is the fluctuation in a peak of the field intensity with respect to the average field strength. Note that Eq.(6) and Eq.(5) have the same dependence on the relevant parameters for $`P(k)k^2`$.

A comparison between losses and gain (shocks, or turbulence with $`s=2`$) processes is given in Fig.1a,b: radio emitting electrons ($`\gamma 10^4`$) have radiative lifetimes of $`10^8`$yrs, in addition the acceleration of electrons with $`\gamma <10`$ and $`\gamma >10^5`$ appears extremely difficult (see also Petrosian, this meeting).

## 3. Electron populations in galaxy clusters

It has been shown that a magnetic field with strength $`0.1\mu `$G can easily store the bulk of cosmic rays in the cluster volume for a time greater than the Hubble time (e.g., Berezinski, Blasi and Ptuskin 1997). If this holds in the case of protons, the confinment is much easily obtained for electrons. Indeed the diffusion length of the particles decreases with the energy, and thus it is much shorter in the case of relativistic electrons than in that of the relativistic protons.

Here we focus our attention on the case of the populations of relativistic electrons. Electrons can be injected in the ICM by different processes :

* Acceleration by shocks (Pop.A): Radio observations of supernovae indicate that strong shocks convert at least a few percent of their energy into the acceleration of relativistic particles. Thus, merger shocks may represent a natural acceleration mechanism for the relativistic electrons in galaxy clusters (e.g., Sarazin, 1999). Particle acceleration by merger shocks has been studied in detail (e.g., Takizawa & Naito, 2000; Miniati et al., 2001; Fujita & Sarazin, 2001). and it might explain the apparent correlation between the non–thermal phenomena and the presence of merger activity in clusters of galaxies (e.g., Buote, 2001 and ref. therein).
* Reaccelerated electrons (Pop.B): There is a number of sources of relativistic electrons in galaxy clusters. In particular active galaxies (e.g., radio galaxies), merger shocks, supernova and galactic winds can efficiently inject relativistic protons and electrons in the cluster volume over cosmological time (e.g., Sarazin, 2002 and ref. therein). High relativistic electrons have very short radiative lifetimes, however, when they reach energies of $`\gamma 100300`$ they survive for some billion years (Fig.1b) and thus can be accumulated in the cluster volume. Cluster mergers may produce a significant level of turbulence in the ICM, in this case Alfven waves and/or some other Fermi–like processes diffuse in the cluster volume could reaccelerate $`\gamma 100300`$ relativistic electrons to the higher energies required to explain radio halos (e.g., Brunetti et al., 2001a). Electron reacceleration has been also invoked for the origin of radio mini–halos in cooling flow clusters. In this case the energy for the reacceleration may be provided by the cooling flow itself (Gitti et al.2002).
* Secondary electrons (Pop.C): Dennison (1980) first pointed out that a possible source of the relativistic electrons in radio halos is the continuous injection due to the decay of charged mesons generated in cosmic ray ion collisions. This idea has been reconsidered in detail in the model by Blasi & Colafrancesco (1999), and then by Dolag & Ensslin (2000) assuming a radial profile of the cluster magnetic field taken from numerical simulations. In order to explain the connection between cluster mergers and radio halos, Ensslin (1999) proposed that relativistic protons are released from radio ghosts into the ICM during a cluster merger event. More recently, Miniati et al. (2001) have developed numerical simulations of cluster formation and calculated the injection of primary relativistic protons by strong shocks. These authors find that, under some assumptions, the resulting secondary electrons might produce diffuse synchrotron emission in agreement with some of the observed properties of radio halos.

From a theoretical point of view the above electron populations are very reasonable, thus it may very well be that all of them contribute to the injection of the relativistic electrons in the ICM. In addition it should be noticed that the final electron population may be due to a complicated mix of all the above reported processes. For example, shocks may accelerate relic electrons contributing to the Pop.B, but they can also (re)accelerate relativistic protons increasing the rate of injection of secondary electrons (Pop.C). In addition to the acceleration of relic electrons (Pop.B), cluster turbulence would (re)accelerate protons increasing the rate of injection of secondary electrons (Pop.C). Finally, secondary electrons can be (re)accelerated by shocks and/or cluster turbulence powered by a merger event (Pop.A,B).

## 4. Possible diagnostics

A possibility to break the degeneracy on the origin of the emitting electrons might be provided by some observational diagnostics.

### 4.1. Diffusion lengths

The $``$ Mpc size of most radio halos suggests that a population of electrons accelerated by shocks in the clusters (Pop. A) cannot significantly contribute to the observed diffuse radio emission. This is because, after being accelerated by a shock, the synchrotron emitting electrons have a short ($`10^8`$yrs) radiative lifetime and cannot diffuse over the cluster volume.

In order to better quantify the typical diffusion length $`R_\mathrm{d}`$ of the radio electrons, we should derive the diffusion time $`\tau _{\mathrm{diff}}R_\mathrm{d}^2/(4𝒦(\gamma ))`$, where $`𝒦(\gamma )`$ is the spatial diffusion coefficient. We assume a Kolmogorov spectrum of the magnetic field (e.g., Blasi & Colafrancesco, 1999) and obtain :

$$𝒦(\gamma )1.8\times 10^{28}L_{20\mathrm{k}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}}^{2/3}\left(\frac{\gamma }{B_{\mu G}}\right)^{1/3}$$
(7)
where $`L_{20\mathrm{k}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}}`$ is the largest coherence scale of the field and $`B_{\mu G}`$ is the magnetic field strength in $`\mu G`$. The diffusion length $`R_\mathrm{d}`$ is obtained when the diffusion time equals the radiative lifetime, $`\tau _{\mathrm{loss}}=\gamma (d\gamma /dt)^1`$ (Sect.2). In the most interesting regime, when IC losses dominate (i.e., for $`\gamma >>10^3`$ and $`B_{\mu G}<3`$), we obtain:

$$R_\mathrm{d}(\mathrm{kpc})36(1+z)^2\left(\frac{\gamma }{10^4}\right)^{1/3}\left(\frac{L_{\mathrm{kpc}}}{B_{\mu G}^{1/2}}\right)^{1/3}$$
(8)
A more general result is reported in Fig.2 : the maximum diffusion length is obtained for electrons with $`\gamma 1001000`$, while radio emitting electrons cannot diffuse for more than about 50 kpc.

Another possibility is given by a scenario in which a fast shock crosses the cluster center and accelerates the relativistic electrons across the cluster volume. In this case the diffusion time of the electrons is replaced by the crossing time of the shock that should be shorther than the radiative lifetime of the radio emitting electrons, i.e. :

$$\tau _{\mathrm{cross}}(\mathrm{yrs})\frac{10^9D(\mathrm{Mpc})}{U_{\mathrm{sh}}/10^3}<\tau _{\mathrm{loss}}(\gamma 10^4)$$
(9)
which for a typical total extension of $`2`$ Mpc would require an unreasonaby high Mack number of the shock $`_{\mathrm{sh}}>5`$. A detailed calculation of the electron population accelerated by merger shocks has been recently developed by Miniati et al.(2001). These authors calculate the resulting synchrotron radiation and they find indeed that the morphology of the resulting emission is similar to that of radio relics rather than to radio halos. Furthermore, due to the field compression in the shock, the emitted synchrotron radiation is highly polarized (as in the case of radio relic) in contrast with the very low polarization found in the radio halos. Additional evidence against a direct link between merger shock acceleration and non–thermal emission has been obtained by Gabici & Blasi (2002) who have shown that the low Mach number expected in the merger shocks would accelerate a very steep spectrum of protons and electrons which cannot account for the observed synchrotron spectrum of radio halos (also in the case of secondary models).

### 4.2. Radio brightness profiles

The timescale of the p–p collision, which is the process responsible for the injection of secondary electrons (Pop C), is $`n_{\mathrm{th}}^1`$. Consequently, for a given number density of the relativistic protons, secondary electrons are expected to be injected in the denser regions and the radio emission would be stronger in the cluster core. So far, a quantitative comparison of the observed radio and thermal bremsstrahlung X–ray profiles ($`b_\mathrm{r}`$ and $`b_\mathrm{x}`$, respectively) was obtained for 5 extended radio halos (Govoni et al. 2001; Feretti et al. 2001). In two cases a linear correlation exists between the radio and X–ray brightness (i.e., $`b_\mathrm{r}b_\mathrm{x}^b`$, with $`b1`$) whereas in the remaining three cases a sub–linear trend is found (Coma: $`b`$=0.64, A2319: $`b`$=0.82, A2163: $`b`$=0.64). On the other hand, simple - but viable - secondary models would predict $`b>1`$ trend (Dolag & Ensslin 2000). In this Section we explore if this discrepancy can be accomodated. We assume a power low energy distribution of the injected relativistic protons:

$$N_\mathrm{p}(ϵ,R)=N_\mathrm{p}(R)ϵ^s$$
(10)
where $`N_\mathrm{p}(R)`$ gives the spatial distribution of the protons. In this case, following standard recipes for the calculation of proton proton decay (e.g., Mannheim & Schlickeiser, 1994) and assuming time independent conditions (e.g., Dolag & Enslin 2000), it can be shown that the energy distribution of the relativistic electrons is also a power law :

$$N_\mathrm{e}(ϵ,R)=C_\mathrm{e}\frac{n_{\mathrm{th}}(R)N_\mathrm{p}(R)}{B^2(R)+B_{\mathrm{cmb}}^2}ϵ^\delta $$
(11)
where $`C_\mathrm{e}`$ is a constant, and the slope of the electron spectrum is $`\delta =\frac{4}{3}s+\frac{1}{3}`$. In order to calculate the number density of the secondary electrons we parameterize the number density of the relativistic protons with that of the thermal plasma:

$$N_\mathrm{p}(R)=C_\mathrm{p}n_{\mathrm{th}}(R)(R)kT$$
(12)
where $`C_\mathrm{p}`$ is a constant, and $`(R)`$ gives the ratio between relativistic and thermal protons energy densities. The synchrotron brightness profile is thus given by:

$$b_{\mathrm{syn}}(y)=C_\mathrm{e}C_\mathrm{p}C_{\mathrm{syn}}\nu ^\alpha kT\times _y\frac{dRR}{\sqrt{R^2y^2}}n_{\mathrm{th}}^2(R)(R)\frac{B(R)^{1+\alpha }}{B^2(R)+B_{\mathrm{cmb}}^2}$$
(13)
We remind that the thermal brightness emission from a cluster is given by :

$$b_{\mathrm{th}}(y)_y\frac{dRR}{\sqrt{R^2y^2}}n_{\mathrm{th}}^2(R)\mathrm{\Lambda }(T)$$
(14)
and thus the ratio between thermal and synchrotron brightness depends on the quantity $`\mathrm{\Phi }=(R)B(R)^{1+\alpha }/(B^2(R)+B_{\mathrm{cmb}}^2)`$ in Eq.(14), which is $`(R)B(R)^{1+\alpha }`$ for a magnetic field strength $`<3\mu `$G. More specifically, if $`\mathrm{\Phi }(R)`$ is a decreasing function of $`R`$ the synchrotron profile will be narrower than the X–ray thermal profile. In Fig.3a we report the comparison between the synchrotron brightness profile from secondary models and the observed one. The theoretical profiles are considerably steeper than observed. This happens in the case of both flux freezing approximation ($`Bn_{\mathrm{th}}^{2/3}`$) and of a radial dependence of the field as that from numerical MHD simulations (Dolag, Bartelmann and Lesch 2002). These simulations suggest a rapid decrease of the field in the regions out of the cluster core ($`Bn_{\mathrm{th}}`$). In order to reproduce the observed brightness profile with secondary models, $`(R)`$ is then forced to rapidly increase with $`R`$ (Fig.3b). As a net result, we find that secondary models can reproduce the profile of the Coma halo only by forcing the energy density of the relativistic protons to be considerably larger than that of the thermal ICM out of the cluster radius; this is quite unreasonable. On the other hand, Miniati et al.(2001) have shown that secondary models can account for the radio extension of a Coma like halo. We stress that our calculations are not in contradiction with Miniati et al.(2001) as we have assumed a physical model for the magnetic field strength profile, whereas those authors assumed a value of the magnetic field ($`3\mu `$G) roughly constant up to several core radii from the cluster center. In this case the resulting synchrotron emissivity at $`>r_\mathrm{c}`$ would obviously be increased considerably with respect to our calculations.

### 4.3. Integrated and radial spectral steepenings

Radio observations of the best studied radio halo, Coma C, have discovered a cut-off around 1 GHz in the integrated synchrotron spectrum (e.g., Deiss et al. 1997) and a strong steepening of the spectrum with increasing the distance from the center (Giovannini et al. 1993; Fig.4a). The presence of a similar radial spectral steepening has been also found in the well studied radio mini–halo of the Perseus cluster (Sijbring, 1993; Fig.4b). So far, the lack of similar multifrequency radio data for other radio halos (or mini–halos) does not allow to understand if the synchrotron spectral properties of Coma and Perseus are common among radio halos and mini–halos.

Brunetti et al.(1999, 2001a) pointed out that synchrotron radial spectral steepenings are expected in the case of extended radio halos if the synchrotron radiation is emitted by reaccelerated electrons (Pop B). In these models, the maximum energy of the reaccelerated electrons is expected at $`\gamma _\mathrm{c}2.5\times 10^4/(\tau _{\mathrm{acc}}/10^8\mathrm{yrs})`$, where $`\tau _{\mathrm{acc}}`$ is the reacceleration time. Since the Fermi II–like processes in the ICM give typical acceleration time scales $`\tau _{\mathrm{acc}}>10^7`$yrs (e.g., Eilek & Weatherall 1999), it is $`\gamma _\mathrm{c}<10^5`$. Consequently, a cut–off in the synchroyron spectrum might be present in the radio band. Another consequence of these models is that, if the field strength in clusters decreases with distance from the center (e.g. Dolag et al. 2002), the corresponding frequency of the cut–off in the synchrotron spectrum should decrease with the distance from the center yielding a possible radial steepening of the spectrum between two fixed frequencies (see also Kuo et al., this proceedings).

On the other hand, as already discussed, if the spectrum of the primary protons is a power law, the secondary electron-positron pairs (Pop C) from $`\pi ^\pm `$ decay have also a power low spectrum. This is still true ($`\gamma >1000`$), if the complete proton–proton cross section is taken into account in the calculations (e.g., Blasi 2001) and the spectrum ($`\nu >10`$ MHz) of the synchrotron emission predicted by secondary models should be a straight power law without a cut–off. One possibility to obtain a cut–off in the spectrum of the secondary electrons, and thus in the emitted synchrotron spectrum, is to assume a cut–off in the energy distribution of the primary relativistic protons. This should be at $`E_\mathrm{p}50`$ GeV to have the cut–off of the spectrum from the secondary electrons at the $``$GHz. Although, at present, such a cut–off cannot be ruled out by direct observations, we stress that it is very unlikely as it is in contrast with the observations of the spectrum of (Galactic) cosmic rays and with the theoretical expectations from the most accepted acceleration mechanisms. Cosmic ray protons in the Galaxy are detected up to $`E_\mathrm{p}10^{20}`$ GeV and independently on their origin, no cut–off is observed at least up to $`E_\mathrm{p}4\times 10^6`$ GeV. So far, all the mechanisms invoked to inject the primary population of relativistic protons in galaxy clusters do not predict a cut–off in the spectrum of the protons at low energies. In particular, merger shocks are expected to accelerate protons up to $`E_\mathrm{p}10^710^9`$ GeV (e.g., Blasi, 2001), AGNs might accelerate relativistic protons in jets and hot spots at $`E_\mathrm{p}10^8`$ GeV (e.g., Biermann, 1995) and SNRs, which - indeed - are likely to produce at least the Galactic cosmic rays up to the observed knee at $`E_\mathrm{p}4\times 10^6`$ GeV, can accelerate protons at $`E_\mathrm{p}10^310^8`$ GeV (e.g., Bhattacharjee & Sigl, 2000). Studies aimed at constraining the spectrum of secondary electrons in clusters and their contribution to the radio halos are important (Blasi, Brunetti, Gabici, 2002, in prep.).

## 5. Hard X–ray emission and the $`B`$–field discrepancy

In this Section we focus on the IC model, in particular the aim of this Section is to critically review the discrepancy between the magnetic field strength as requested by the IC interpretation and that from RM observations (e.g., Carilli & Taylor, 2001 and ref. therein). The measure of the magnetic field strengths with the IC method and via RM observations clearly involves different spatial averages of the magnetic field itself : the first measure provides a volume average of the field on scales $``$Mpc, while the second one provides a weighted average of the field vector and thermal gas density along the line of sight. In addition, the IC method is very sensitive to the spectrum of the relativistic electrons especially in the case of $`B<1\mu G`$. Taking into account the radial dependence of the thermal gas and magnetic field strength, Goldshmidt & Rephaeli (1993) first showed that the field strength estimated with the IC method is expected to be smaller than that ‘measured’ with the RM observations. In addition, as shown in Fig.5a, the presence of a high energy cut–off in the spectrum of the emitting electrons (e.g., Brunetti et al. 2001a; Fujita & Sarazin 2001) might further increase the discrepancy of the field strengths obtained making use of the two methods. Indeed, the ratio between the typical Lorentz factor of the radio emitting electrons and of those emitting IC radiation in the HXR band is $`\gamma _{\mathrm{syn}}/\gamma _{\mathrm{HXR}}3.5\times B_{\mu G}^{1/2}`$, thus, in the case $`B<1\mu G`$, a cut–off close to $`\gamma _{\mathrm{syn}}`$ would reduce the synchrotron emission without affecting the IC in the HXR band. As a net result, the ratio between radio synchrotron and IC HXR flux is reduced. Since the IC magnetic field is derived by such a ratio, the argument can be reversed so that given an observed ratio between radio and HXR flux, the assumption of a cut–off in the electron spectrum (close to the energy of the radio electrons) allows us to obtain a value of the magnetic field strength higher than that calculated with the standard power law assumption. This effect, combined with possible anisotropies in the pitch angle distribution of the emitting electrons and with observative biases (Petrosian, 2001), may alleviate the discrepancy between the magnetic field values as obtained assuming an IC origin of the HXR and those as estimated by RM observations.

We stress, however, that the result shown in Fig.5a might be misleading as the energy of the cut–off in the electron spectrum and the value of the $`B`$ field are constrained by the shape of the radio spectrum. A possibility to check how much the field discrepancy can be alleviated is given by detailed calculations based on models of radio halos whose parameters are forced to reproduce the overall radio synchrotron properties of the Coma halo (i.e., brightness profiles, integrated radio spectrum, and radial spectral steepening). Given a model for particle acceleration, the comparison between the overall radio properties and the model expectations provides a set of possible radial profiles of the cluster magnetic field. In Fig.5b we report two representative profiles obtained by fitting the radio properties with the two–phase model (Brunetti et al. 2001a) compared with two profiles obtained by independent numerical simulations (Dolag et al., 2002). The IC calculations in the case of the low field model in Fig.5b provide a HXR flux from the Coma cluster compatible with the observations, whereas IC scattering would account for $`30`$% of the observed HXR in the case of medium field profile. It is important to notice that, while the volume averaged magnetic field strength in both the cases in Fig.5b is $`0.30.4\mu G`$, the magnetic field strength in the cluster core region ($`12`$ arcmin), i.e. the region in which RM observations are effective, is between 0.8 and 2 $`\mu G`$. This value is compatible within a factor of $`2`$ with the values of the magnetic fields inferred by RM observations in a number of clusters (e.g., Clarke et al., 2001; Carilli & Taylor, 2001). In addition, when a power spectrum of the field is assumed, the magnetic field strengths inferred from RM data is lower than that inferred with standard recipes (e.g., Dolag et al., 2002; Newman, Newman, Rephaeli, 2002; Govoni et al., this meeting). If so, the discrepancy between IC and RM field may be considerably alleviated. The improvement in sensitivity provided by the future X–ray observatories (e.g., ASTRO–E2, NEXT) is impressive and it will probably allow us to test the IC hypothesis.

## 6. Conclusions

Highly relativistic electrons (i.e., $`\gamma >10^3`$) can be injected in clusters of galaxies by several processes : they can be accelerated by merger shocks (Pop A), they can be relic relativistic electrons (i.e., $`\gamma 10100`$) reaccelerated by cluster turbulence (Pop B), and they can be secondary electrons injected by hadronic collisions (Pop C). We examine three diagnostic which can help us to better understand the origin of the relativistic electrons producing the observed radio synchrotron emission :

* Electrons accelerated by strong merger shocks (Pop. A) cannot produce synchrotron emission diffuse on $``$Mpc scale as that of classical radio halos. This is due to the short radiative lifetime of the electrons after being accelerated in the shock region. A possibility to accomodate the Mpc sizes within the Pop. A is given by very fast ($`>5`$) - but unlikely - shocks crossing the cluster center or by the presence of cluster turbulence in addition to the merger shocks.
* The comparison between the radio and the soft X–ray brightness of a number of radio halos indicates that the profile of the radio emission is broader than that of the X–ray thermal emission. This appears to be difficult to be accomodated within secondary models (Pop. C) which would yield narrower radio profiles. A possibility to skip this problem is to admit an ad hoc increasing fraction of energy density of the relativistic protons with radius. However, at least in some cases, this would imply an energetics of the relativistic protons higher than that of the thermal pool.
* The spectral cut–off and radial spectral steepenings observed in the case of Coma (and in the mini–halo in the Perseus cluster) strongly point to the presence of a cut–off in the spectrum of the emitting electrons. This cut–off may be naturally accounted for if the synchrotron emission is produced by reaccelerated (Pop.B) electrons, whereas it is not expected in the case of secondary electrons (Pop.C). Future studies will clarify how much synchrotron spectral cut–offs and radial steepenings are common in radio halos.

Points i)–iii) would suggest that radio halos are powered by the synchrotron emission from electrons reaccelerated (Pop.B) in the cluster volume during merger events. This conclusion is, however, based on detailed studies of only few radio halos. As a consequence, detailed observations are still required to better understand the origin of radio halos.

The origin of the HXR emission detected in few clusters of galaxies is still matter of debate. It could be IC emission from relativistic electrons belonging to the same population of electrons responsible for the large scale radio emission. Alternatively HXR emission might result from bremsstrahlung emission from a supra–thermal tail of electrons. Both these hypothesis have problems: the IC emission would require a magnetic field value in apparent disagreement with that inferred from RM observations, while the supra–thermal bremsstrahlung requires a too large amount of energy if emitted for $`>10^8`$yrs. We have shown that the discrepancy between the field value obtained from the IC assumption and that from the RM observations can be significantly reduced. It is now clear that the combination of spatial trends and inhomogenities in the thermal gas and magnetic field distribution with the presence of a cut–off in the electron spectrum at the energies of the radio emitting electrons would allow the IC magnetic field to be in better agreement with that from the RM observations. Although these assumptions are a posteriori and might seem a sort of conjuring tricks, it should be noticed that the presence of a high energy cut–off at $`\gamma _\mathrm{c}10^4`$ would really results from models of radio halos invoking the reacceleration of relic relativistic electrons. In addition a decreasing radial profile of the magnetic field strength is naturally expected. In the framework of Pop.B models, we have shown that assuming the same model parameters necessary to reproduce the general radio properties of the Coma halo (brightness profile, integrated radio spectrum, and radial spectral steepening), the resulting IC HXR would easily be about $`30100`$% of that observed. In this case, the resulting magnetic field strength in the cluster core is of the order of $`1\mu G`$ which is in rough agreement with the RM observations especially when the field strength from the RM data is calculated assuming a power spectrum of the field itself.

#### Acknowledgments.

I would like to thank S.Bowyer, C.-Y. Hwang and the local organizing committee for organizing such an enjoyable and interesting conference. I am grateful to L.Feretti and P.Blasi for useful discussions and to K.Dolag for providing the magnetic field profiles reported in Fig.5b.

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# Structure Function Scaling of a 2MASS Extinction Map of Taurus.

## 1 Introduction

Stars are formed predominantly from very large clouds of cold interstellar gas containing up to millions of solar masses of material. The dynamics of such clouds is therefore a crucial ingredient in the process of star formation. Observations of emission spectra of molecular transitions have shown that the kinematics of star–forming clouds is best described as supersonic random motions, often referred to as supersonic turbulence. Numerical simulations of supersonic turbulence have indeed been compared successfully with the observations, in the sense that many statistical properties of numerical supersonic turbulent flows are also found in the observational data (e.g. Padoan et al. 1998, 1999, 2001).

The cold gas in star–forming clouds, especially their molecular component, cools very rapidly down to a typical equilibrium temperature of approximately 10 K. The shocks caused by the observed random supersonic velocity field are therefore roughly isothermal, which allows them to compress the gas effectively. Expansions are also favored by the isothermal behavior of the gas and large voids of very low density can be generated. The result is a very large contrast between the highest and the lowest densities, as commonly found in numerical simulations with an isothermal equation of state. We usually refer to this effect of the turbulent velocity on the density field as turbulent fragmentation, to stress the fact that star–forming clouds are more likely fragmented into dense prestellar cores directly by the turbulent velocity field, rather than by a hierarchical process of gravitational fragmentation.

The traditional way to study the dynamics of star forming clouds is to probe their kinematics by the Doppler shift in spectral lines of molecular transitions. However, the dynamics can also be studied through the density field, as the gas density is so strongly affected by the supersonic velocity. The investigation of the cloud spatial structure may be used to test predictions of numerical and analytical models more directly than using the velocity field. Projected density is in fact easier to measure than the velocity field. This is especially true if stellar extinction measurements are available, since they provide the most reliable estimate of column density.

Thanks to the recently completed “Two Micron All Sky Survey” (2MASS; Cutri et al. 2001), it is now possible to generate extinction maps of several extended giant molecular cloud complexes with a dynamical range in both column density and spatial resolution that is not matched by any molecular line survey. In this work we derive new extinction maps of the Taurus region using 2MASS point source data, and show that we can probe values of dust column density over more than two orders of magnitude and achieve a spatial resolution higher than in IRAS 100 $`\mu `$m images (§ 2). In § 3 we present the results of the structure function analysis of the extinction map and obtain a scaling that is indistinguishable from that of the velocity structure functions in supersonic turbulence. Conclusions are drawn in § 4.

## 2 Extinction Maps from 2MASS Data

Lada et al. (1994) use the stellar extinction determined from the IR color excess, instead of stellar counts, to map interstellar clouds. Their method is based on superimposing a regular grid on the observed region, and giving each grid cell a value of extinction equal to the average extinction of the stars within that cell. The number of stars per cell decreases with increasing average extinction in the cell, because only the brightest background stars can be seen through a large column of dust. The method has been improved by Lombardi & Alves (2001), using Gaussian filtering to obtain a smooth regularly sampled map.

In this work we compute stellar extinction maps with the method proposed by Cambresy et al. (2002). This method uses adaptive cells that contain a fixed number of stars instead of cells of fixed size. In this way it is possible to keep the spatial resolution as high as allowed by the local stellar density. The spatial resolution is higher in regions of low extinction than in regions of large extinction, where fewer background stars are detected and larger cells must be used. The average spatial resolution over the whole map can be changed by changing the number of stars per cell.

The color excess is computed using the relation $`E_{HK_s}=(HK_s)_{\mathrm{obs}}(HK_s)_{\mathrm{int}}`$, where $`(HK_s)_{\mathrm{obs}}`$ is the observed median color in a cell and $`(HK_s)_{\mathrm{int}}`$ is the intrinsic median color, estimated from the colors of supposedly unreddened stars. In the method by Lada et al. (1994) the mean color is used instead of the median color. We prefer to use the median color because it has the advantage of minimizing the effect of foreground stars, as shown by Cambresy et al. (2002). Visual extinction values are obtained from the color excess using the Rieke and Lebofsky (1985) extinction law, which results in the relation $`A_V=15.87\times E_{HK_s}`$.

Cambresy et al. (2002) have applied this method to study the North America and Pelican Nebulae. However, these nebulae are rather close to the galactic plane, and are therefore very difficult to study with extinction measurements due to the mixture of stars and other clouds in their background. The Taurus molecular cloud complex is far from the galactic plane (approximately $`15^{}`$ south) and very close to us, at a distance of approximately 140 pc (Kenyon, Dobrzycka & Hartmann 1994). Contamination from foreground stars is therefore negligible for this region, as well as confusion with other clouds in the distant background.

We have computed extinction maps of the Taurus molecular cloud complex using 1, 3, 10, 30 and 100 stars per cell covering a region of $`12^{}\times 10^{}`$. Figure 1 shows the map obtained with 10 stars per cell. Approximately 115 known young embedded stars (Herbig & Bell 1988; Leinert et al. 1993; Kenyon et al. 1994; Briceno et al. 1998) have been excluded from the 2MASS catalog before computing the extinction maps. The intrinsic color is computed as the median color of stars in regions where no $`{}_{}{}^{12}CO`$ (Dame et al. 2001) is detected, within a field larger than the actual extinction map ($`155^{}<l<177^{}`$) and is found to be $`(HK_s)_{\mathrm{int}}=0.13`$ mag. The standard deviation of the color of these unreddened stars provides an estimate of the uncertainty (1-$`\sigma `$ noise) in the extinction maps.

The value of this uncertainty, the median angular resolution (cell diameter) and the maximum extinction value for each map are given in Table 1. Since cell sizes are adapted to contain a fixed number of stars, the statistical uncertainty is independent of the extinction level (the noise is uniform over the map). The highest resolution achieved with these maps is remarkable. The map with 3 stars per cell, for example, yields a median resolution of 1.7’, almost 3 times better than the resolution of IRAS 100 $`\mu `$m images (4’$`\times `$5’).

As shown in Table 1, we can probe values of $`A_V`$ ranging from 0.3 mag (1$`\sigma `$ detection in the 100 stars per cell map) to 33 mag (largest extinction in the 1 star per cell map). Using a standard gas to dust ratio, $`N(H+H_2)/A_\mathrm{V}=2\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2mag-1 (Bohlin et al. 1978), the range in extinction corresponds to approximately two orders of magnitude in column density, from $`N(H+H_2)=6\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 to $`N(H+H_2)=6.6\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2.

## 3 Structure Functions of Projected Density

The structure functions of the extinction map, $`A_V(𝐱)`$, are defined as:

$$S_p(l)=|A_V(𝐱)A_V(𝐱+𝐥)|^p$$
(1)
where $`p`$ is the order and the average is extended to all map positions $`𝐱`$. In turbulent flows it is found that the structure functions of velocity are power laws. Assuming that the structure functions of projected density (or extinction) are power laws as well, we call $`\eta (p)`$ the exponents of these power laws:

$$S_p(l)l^{\eta (p)}$$
(2)
In Figure 2 we have plotted the structure functions of the map obtained with 10 stars per cell, relative to the third order structure function, since we are interested in investigating the relative scaling, $`\eta (p)/\eta (3)`$ (this follows the idea of extended self–similarity by Benzi et al. 1993 and Dubrulle 1994).

The function $`\eta (p)/\eta (3)`$ is plotted in Figure 3. The velocity scaling predicted by Boldyrev (2002) for supersonic turbulence is shown as a solid line, the one predicted by She & Leveque (1994) for incompressible turbulence is plotted as a dashed line and the Kolmogorov’s velocity scaling, $`p/3`$, is shown by the dotted line. The scaling of the structure functions of projected density is found to be the same as the scaling of velocity structure functions in supersonic turbulence. A priori we do not know if the relative scaling of projected density should be the same as that of the velocity; the velocity scaling from theoretical models is shown here only as a reference.

Padoan et al. (2002) have recently analyzed in a similar way 13CO maps of the same Taurus region and of Perseus. The present result for the relative scaling of the structure functions in Taurus confirms the results of that work. However, the sample size from the 2MASS data is much larger than the sample size of the 13CO map. Furthermore, the spatial resolution of the extinction map is slightly better and the range of column density sampled 20 times larger than in the 13CO map. The statistical significance of high order moments from the analysis of the 2MASS data should therefore be much higher than from the 13CO maps.

## 4 Conclusions

Boldyrev (2002) has recently proposed an analytic model for the velocity structure function scaling in supersonic turbulence. The model is an extension of the scaling of incompressible turbulence proposed by She & Leveque (1994) and has already been successfully tested with numerical simulations of supersonic turbulence (Boldyrev, Nordlund & Padoan 2002a). An equivalent analytic model for the scaling of the structure functions of projected density in supersonic turbulence is not available yet. Only the slope of the second order structure function has been derived from the velocity structure functions, under certain approximations (Boldyrev, Nordlund & Padoan 2002b). However, the fact that the projected density follows the same scaling as the velocity field in supersonic turbulence suggests that the density field in the Taurus region is the result of a multiplicative process with a Log-Poisson statistics (Dubrulle 1994), very likely the result of the turbulent fragmentation.

The importance of supersonic turbulence in the fragmentation of star-forming regions has been established in previous works (e.g. Padoan & Nordlund 1999; Padoan et al. 2001; Padoan & Nordlund 2002). The purpose of the present work is primarily to determine the statistical properties of the fragmentation process, independent of its origin. Such statistical properties may be universal, for example if they are mainly the consequence of turbulence, or depend on several physical parameters, such as gas density, temperature, turbulent velocity dispersion and star formation activity. We plan to compute and analyze 2MASS extinction maps of different extended star-forming regions in order to establish the properties of the fragmentation process that leads to the formation of stars in different environments.

This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. The work of PP was performed while PP held a National Research Council Associateship Award at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.

Table and Figure captions:

Table 1: Extinction map parameters for different spatial resolutions.

Figure 1: Extinction map of the Taurus region computed with 10 stars per cell.

Figure 2: Structure functions of the extinction map from $`p=1`$ to 20 relative to the third order structure function. The extinction map with 10 stars per cell has been used. The solid lines show the least square fits used to define the power law slopes.

Figure 3: Top panel: Relative structure function scaling. Bottom panel: Structure function exponents divided by the Boldyrev’s scaling.


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# Tracing Black Hole Mergers Through Radio Lobe Morphology

## Abstract

Binary supermassive black holes are produced by galactic mergers as the black holes from the two galaxies fall to the center of the merged system and form a bound pair. The two black holes will eventually coalesce in an enormous burst of gravitational radiation. Here we show that the orientation of a black hole’s spin axis would change dramatically even in a minor merger, leading to a sudden flip in the direction of any associated jet. We identify the winged or X-type radio sources with galaxies in which this has occurred. The implied coalescence rate is similar to the overall galaxy merger rate, suggesting that the prospects are good for observing gravitational waves from coalescing supermassive black holes.

The detection of gravitational radiation from coalescing supermassive black holes (SBHs) would constitute a rigorous test of general relativity in the strong-field limit (1). The expected event rate is uncertain however, because the emission of gravitational waves is negligible until the separation between the SBHs falls below $`10^310^2`$ pc. By contrast, simulations of binary SBHs at the centers of galaxies suggest that binary decay may stall at separations of $`1`$ pc, too great for the efficient emission of gravitational waves (2). It is unclear whether stellar- or gas-dynamical processes are capable of bridging this gap in a time shorter than the mean time between galaxy mergers. Here we consider whether black hole coalescence can alter the spin axis of the larger black hole and yield a detectable geometric signature in the radio observations of merging galaxies.

We estimate the effect of binary black hole coalescence on the spin of the resulting black hole using angular momentum conservation,

$$𝐒_\mathrm{𝟏}+𝐒_\mathrm{𝟐}+𝐋_{\mathrm{orb}}=𝐒+𝐉_{\mathrm{rad}}$$
$`(\mathrm{𝟏})`$
where $`𝐒_\mathrm{𝟏}`$ and $`𝐒_\mathrm{𝟐}`$ are the spin angular momenta of the two SBHs just before the final plunge, $`𝐋_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ is the orbital angular momentum of the binary before the plunge, $`𝐒`$ is the spin of the resulting SBH, and $`𝐉_{\mathrm{rad}}`$ is the angular momentum carried away by the gravitational waves during and after the coalescence. Splitting of the angular momentum as in Eq. 1 is strictly only defined in a post-Newtonian limit (3) but this ambiguity is unimportant in what follows.

We denote the masses of the two SBHs as $`M_1`$ and $`M_2`$, such that $`M_1M_2`$, and define their sum as $`MM_1+M_2`$. Consider first the effect of the orbital angular momentum on the spin of the resulting black hole. The appropriate value for $`L_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ is the angular momentum of the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) of the binary. For $`M_2M_1`$, this varies from $`\sqrt{12}GM_1M_2/c`$ if the larger SBH is nonrotating, to $`GM_1M_2/c`$ for a prograde orbit around a black hole that spins at the maximum possible rate, $`S_1=GM_1^2/c`$ (4). When $`M_1M_2`$, the ISCO is not easily determined but various approximations have been derived based on post-Newtonian expansions and numerical calculations.

We estimated the contribution of $`L_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ to the resultant spin in two ways. Adding mass gradually to an initially nonrotating black hole from a fixed plane produces a spinup that depends uniquely on the total accreted mass $`\delta M`$; in this limiting case, gravitational radiation losses are negligible and the radius of the ISCO is known precisely (4). Alternatively, we can relate $`S`$ to $`L_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ using the approximate expression (5) for the orbital angular momentum at ISCO in unequal-mass black hole binaries; this expression also ignores the gravitational radiation reaction. The two approximations yield similar results (Fig. 1) suggesting that the spinup of an initially nonrotating black hole will exceed $`1/2`$ of the maximal spin $`S_{\mathrm{max}}GM^2/c`$ if the accreted mass exceeds just $`1/5`$ that of the primary.

Loss of angular momentum by gravitational waves, $`𝐉_{\mathrm{rad}}`$, becomes increasingly important as $`M_2`$ approaches $`M_1`$. The fully general-relativistic calculations necessary for computing $`𝐉_{\mathrm{rad}}`$ have so far only been carried out for the case of an equal-mass, circular-orbit binary with no initial spins. Baker et al. (6) found that about 12% of the system’s total angular momentum was carried away by gravitational waves; the final spin was $`0.7S_{\mathrm{max}}`$ (Fig. 1).

We next consider changes in the orientation of the larger black hole’s spin axis due to the coalescence. Let $`\psi `$ be the reorientation angle, i.e. the angle between the initial spin $`𝐒_\mathrm{𝟏}`$ of the more massive hole and the final spin $`𝐒`$. Define $`\lambda \delta S/S_1`$, where $`\delta 𝐒𝐒𝐒_\mathrm{𝟏}=𝐋_{\mathrm{orb}}+𝐒_\mathrm{𝟐}𝐉_{\mathrm{rad}}`$. Then

$$\mathrm{cos}\psi =\frac{1+\lambda \mathrm{cos}\theta }{\sqrt{1+\lambda ^2+2\lambda \mathrm{cos}\theta }}$$
$`(2)`$
with $`\theta `$ the angle between $`\delta 𝐒`$ and $`𝐒_\mathrm{𝟏}`$. For $`\lambda <1`$ the maximum reorientation angle is $`\mathrm{cos}\psi _{\mathrm{max}}=\sqrt{1\lambda ^2}`$ while for $`\lambda >1`$ any value of $`\psi `$ is allowed. Assuming a random orientation of $`\delta 𝐒`$ with respect to $`𝐒_\mathrm{𝟏}`$ (not strictly justified when $`S_1>0`$, because the radius of the ISCO depends on the relative orientation of $`𝐋_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ and $`𝐒_\mathrm{𝟏}`$), the distribution of $`\psi `$ can be computed and the mean value of $`\mu \mathrm{cos}\psi `$ is

$$\mu =\{\begin{array}{cc}1\frac{\lambda ^2}{3},\hfill & \lambda 1\text{;}\hfill \\ \frac{2}{3\lambda ,}\hfill & \lambda >1\text{.}\hfill \end{array}$$
$`(3)`$
Comparing Eq. 3 with Fig. 1, we conclude that the reorientation angle is expected to be large when $`M_2\begin{array}{c}>\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}0.2M_1`$, even if the larger hole is rapidly rotating initially. For instance, accretion of a black hole with $`M_2=M_1/4`$ results in $`\delta SGM_1^2/2c`$, comparable to $`S_1`$ if the larger black hole’s spin is initially $`1/2`$ of its maximum value. Hence $`\lambda \begin{array}{c}>\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}1`$ and the reorientation angle could be as large as $`180^{}`$, with a likely value of $`50^{}`$. If the larger black hole is slowly rotating initially, $`S_1GM_1^2/c`$, even smaller infalling black holes could produce substantial reorientations; for instance, for $`S_1=0.1GM_1^2/c`$, accretion of a black hole with $`M_20.05M_1`$ can produce arbitrarily large realignments.

Although the reorientation of a SBH’s spin axis due to coalescence is not directly observable, any gaseous accretion onto the SBH is constrained by relativistic frame dragging to be axisymmetric with respect to the black hole (8), and it is widely believed that the jets emitted from the centers of active galaxies are launched perpendicularly to the inner accretion disk; hence a jet should point in the same direction as the spin axis of the SBH at its center (9). The extraordinary long-term stability of the jet direction in many radio galaxies is strong evidence that jet orientations are regulated by black hole spins (9,10). Because powerful radio galaxies comprise only a fraction, of order $`1\%`$, of all bright elliptical galaxies and because radio power is a rapidly increasing function of galaxy luminosity (11), we would expect only the more massive of the two merging galaxies to harbor a jet. Hence a likely consequence of SBH coalescence in a radio galaxy is a sudden change in the direction of the jet associated with the larger SBH, followed by the generation of a new radio lobe at some (possibly large) angle with respect to the original lobe.

In fact there is a class of radio sources which fit this description: the so-called “winged” or “X-type” radio sources. X-shaped sources are characterized by two low-surface-brightness radio lobes (the “wings”) oriented at an angle to the “active,” or high-surface-brightness, lobes (Fig. 2); both sets of lobes pass symmetrically through the center of the associated elliptical galaxy. The first winged source discovered, NGC 326, was initially interpreted by a model in which a single SBH undergoes slow geodetic precession due to torques from an external mass, resulting in an S-shaped radio morphology (12); later observations (13) revealed the X shape of this source indicating a more rapid change of jet direction. Other explanations for the origin of X-shaped sources have been proposed but none has proved satisfactory; black holes are nearly perfect gyroscopes and reorienting them via external forces is difficult. One proposed model is based on a warping instability of accretion disks (14), but this model fails to explain why jet reorientation occurs only once in the X-shaped sources and why most radio galaxies have stable jet directions. Capture of a dwarf galaxy with mass comparable to $`M_1`$ could reorient a black hole but it is more likely that the infalling galaxy would be disrupted by tidal forces before being accreted (15).

Seven out of eleven X-shaped radio galaxies in which the length of the wings is at least 80% of the length of the active lobes have Fanaroff-Riley type II (FRII); the others are either FRI (NGC 326) or mixed (16,17; Table 1). It has been argued that the host galaxies of FRII sources are the products of recent mergers (7). Because a major merger of comparably massive galaxies would presumably have induced wiggles in the original jet due to bulk motion of the galaxies, the fact that the wings are reasonably straight in most of these sources suggests that the mergers were minor (18). This is reasonable because minor mergers far outnumber major mergers, and because the infalling SBH (whose mass should scale roughly with host galaxy mass, ref. 19) need only have a fraction of the mass of the larger SBH in order to realign it.

The distinctness of the wings and active lobes in the X-shaped galaxies suggests that jet reorientation took place in a relatively short time, $`\begin{array}{c}<\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}10^7`$ yr (20). In our model, the reorientation of the SBHs occurs almost instantaneously; most of the gravitational radiation accompanying the coalescence of two, $`10^8M_{}`$ SBHs would be emitted within just $`100`$ s (6). However the reorientation of the lobe-producing jets would take place on the longer time scale associated with Lense-Thirring precession of the inner accretion disk, $`t_{\mathrm{precess}}t_{\mathrm{orb}}(S_{max}/S)(r/r_s)^{3/2}`$, where $`t_{orb}`$ is the orbital period at radius $`r`$ and $`r_s=2GM/c^2`$ (7). The time for reorientation is $`1`$ yr for the inner accretion disk, and could be even longer if the continued powering of the jet required a realignment of gas at larger radii. In addition, it may be a long time after the galactic merger before the second black hole finds its way to the center of the merged system and forms a binary which can coalesce. The time scale for infall of the smaller galaxy and its SBH is $`2\times 10^8\mathrm{yr}\sigma _{200}^5M_{2,7}^{3/4}`$ where $`\sigma _{200}`$ is the velocity dispersion of the larger galaxy in units of $`200`$ km s-1 and $`M_{2,7}=M_2/10^7M_{}`$ (21). Hence we would not necessarily expect to see signs of a recent merger in the morphology of the radio source’s host galaxy.

We speculate that the time scale for accretion disk realignment may influence the radio source morphology. Slow realignment would cause the jet to deposit its energy into a large volume of space, leading to an FRI source with S-type morphology. Rapid realignment would produce an intermediate-luminosity X-shaped source, perhaps with a radio power near the FRI/FRII break. If realignment occurred long ago ($`\begin{array}{c}>\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}10^8`$ yr), the jets and lobes would be well aligned and the source could build up to a high-luminosity FRII source.

The probability of observing a radio galaxy as an X-shaped source in our model is $`T_X/T_{\mathrm{merge}}`$, where $`T_X`$ is the length of time that the wings remain visible and $`T_{\mathrm{merge}}`$ is the mean time between mergers. The fading time $`T_X`$ can be estimated in a number of ways. Table 1 lists estimates of the time since the radiating particles in the wings were last accelerated; if the mean age of the X-sources is of order their visible lifetime, the spectral aging estimates in Table 1 imply $`T_X\begin{array}{c}<\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}10^8`$ yr. These spectral aging estimates are somewhat model dependent due to the effects of particle re-acceleration, but we can make a direct, semi-empirical estimate of the age by noting the similarity between the wings in the X-sources and the end of the plasma trail in the so-called narrow angle tail sources found in groups and clusters. Luminosity, spectral shape, polarization and brightness are similar and so we would expect both types of source to be visible for a similar time. The galaxies generating these tail sources have velocities typical of the cluster population – we can estimate a dynamical age of $`10^8`$ yr where the tail fades away (22).

If we accept $`T_X10^8`$ yr, and use Leahy & Parma’s (16) estimate that $`7\%`$ of radio galaxies in their sample are X-sources, the mean merger rate for the radio galaxy sample becomes $`0.07/10^8\mathrm{yr}1`$ Gyr-1. This rate is higher than most estimates of the overall galaxy merger rate but it should be a fair estimate unless there is a correlation between the presence of the radio source and the population of galaxies undergoing mergers. There are indeed reasons to believe that there may be such a correlation (23) and more speculatively the black hole coalescence itself may be the trigger for the active galaxy phenomenon. Any such correlation would decrease the implied merger rate for the galaxy population as a whole but rates of $`1`$ Gyr-1 are typical of those inferred for galaxies in dense regions or groups (24). Our result should motivate more detailed studies of galaxy mergers in the hope of demonstrating that binary SBHs can indeed avoid “stalling” and go on to rapid coalescence.

If the coalescence rate of binary SBHs is comparable to the galaxy merger rate, then the binary separation must be able to drop from $`1`$ pc to $`0.01`$ pc in a time shorter than $`1`$ Gyr. The predicted event rate for gravitational wave interferometers should then be about equal to the integrated galaxy merger rate out to a redshift $`z5`$, implying a time between detections of $`1`$ yr (25).

References and Notes

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17. The Fanaroff-Riley types I and II are a morphological classification defined by the degree of edge-brightening in the radio lobes; see B. Fanaroff, J. Riley, Mon. Not. R. Astron. S. 167, 31P (1974).
18. A minor merger is one in which the infalling galaxy has a mass that is 30% or less that of the larger galaxy.
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26. M. Murgia, PhD Thesis, University of Bologna (2000).
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30. P. Leahy kindly allowed us to reproduce the Leahy & Parma catalog of X-shaped radio sources (ref. 16) in Table 1. We thank him, L. Ferrarese, S. Hughes, M. Milosavljevic, and C. O’Dea for useful discussions. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation through grant 4-21911, and by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through grants 4-21904 and NAG5-8693, and by the Miller Institute, University of California at Berkeley.

Table 1. X-shaped radio sources from the compilation of Leahy & Parma (15). $`z`$ is redshift; $`m`$ is total visual magnitude of the host galaxy; $`T`$ is estimated time since the relativistic electrons were last accelerated in the wings of the sources.

| Name | z | m | $`T`$ | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 3C52 | 0.2854 | 18.5 |  | Dust disk |
| 3C136.1 | 0.0640 | 17 |  | Double nucleus/merger remnant |
| 3C223.1 | 0.1075 | 16.6 | $`<35`$ Myr (20) | Dust disk |
| 3C315 | 0.1083 | 18.3 |  | Substructure |
| 3C403 | 0.0590 | 16.5 | $`<17`$ Myr (20) |  |
| 3C433 | 0.1016 |  |  | Dust/star formation |
| 4C12.03 | 0.1100 | 17.8 |  |  |
| 4C48.29 | 0.0530 | 16.0 |  |  |
| B2 0055+26 | 0.0487 | 13.0 | $`70`$ Myr (26) | Double galaxy |
| (NGC 326) |  |  |  |  |
| B2 0828+32 | 0.0527 | 15.1 | $`<75`$ Myr (27) |  |
| B1059+169 | 0.0677 | 15.2 |  |  |
| (Abell 1145) |  |  |  |  |