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# The First Measurement of Cassiopeia A’s Forward Shock Expansion Rate

## 1 Introduction

Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is the youngest SNR in the Galaxy and is located 3.4 kpc away (Reed *et al.*, 1995). The exact age of Cas A is unknown, but recent measurements of freely expanding optical knots that lie in front of the forward shock give an age of 331 years in a.d. 2002 (Thorstensen, Fesen, & van den Bergh, 2001). Proper motion measurements made in the optical, radio, and X-rays show variations in expansion rate from 0.1 to 0.3% yr-1 ($`v`$ 104 km s-1) (Thorstensen, Fesen, & van den Bergh 2001 and references therein). Radio proper motion measurements also show inward motions (Anderson & Rudnick, 1995).

The forward shock in Cas A has recently been identified in the X-rays as a thin, fragmented ring bordering the outer edge of the remnant and exhibiting continuum dominated spectra (Gotthelf *et al.*, 2001). The bright ring, at 2/3 the radius of the forward shock, is strong in line emission and is often associated with the reverse shock. There is a paradoxical difference in expansion rates for the bright ring measured in the different wavebands of approximately 3:2:1 for the optical, X-ray, and radio respectively (Thorstensen, Fesen, & van den Bergh 2001 and references therein).

In this paper, we present the first measurement of the proper motions of the forward shock fragments in X-rays. We also present a re-evaluation of the motion of the radio bright ring in order to provide a coherent dynamical picture.

## 2 X-ray Observations, Analysis, and Results

We observed Cas A for 50 ks with the ACIS-S3 chip onboard the *Chandra X-ray Observatory* on 2002 Feb 6. The observation parameters are listed in Table 1 and were chosen to match those of the first 50 ks exposure of the ACIS-S3 chip on 2000 Jan 30-31 (Hwang, Holt, & Petre, 2000; Gotthelf *et al.*, 2001). We had to recalibrate the first epoch X-ray observation to make use of the newest calibration solutions (CALDB version 2.11)111http://asc.harvard.edu/ciao/threads/acisgainmap/ and to apply the new geometry solutions (geometry file telD1999-07-23geomN0004.fits)222http://asc.harvard.edu/ciao/threads/geom\_par/. We used an energy range of 0.3-10 keV to make the images. No exposure correction has been applied to the images. Figure 1 is the second epoch *Chandra* X-ray image. The difference between the two epochs, after normalization and registration, is shown in Figure 2. The diagonal stripes on Figure 2 are due to the node boundaries and dead columns on the ACIS-S3 chip.

There are two important reasons for requiring the same observational parameters, in particular the pointing center and roll angle, for the two X-ray observations. First, the point spread function is asymmetric and a function of position on the chip. This effect would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to remove at the accuracy needed for our proper motion measurements. Second, the relative scale in the x and y directions on the chip is also uncertain, at a level of 0.07%. This could easily masquerade as a small but systematic asymmetric expansion.

A difference in plate scale between the two *Chandra* X-ray observations could also affect our proper motion measurements. In principle, the plate scale may change for two reasons – a change in the mirror focal length and a change in the physical chip size. There is no reason to expect a change in the physical size of the chip because the temperature was the same for both observations. If the focal length changes by a significant amount, it would first result in a deterioration of the point spread function, which is not observed (M. Markevitch private communication).

We registered the two images by aligning them on the point source. The second epoch image was first normalized to match the total counts on the first epoch image. The first epoch image was then shifted in RA and DEC with respect to the second epoch image to minimize $`\chi ^2`$ of the difference between the two images for a 7$`\mathrm{}`$ region around the point source. The 68% confidence limit of the $`\chi ^2`$ distribution leads to an uncertainty of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$015 in the registration. This uncertainty translates to 0.005% yr-1 at the mean radius of the forward shock fragments (149$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$2). Although the point source was chosen to align the images, it is in motion almost due south at a rate of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$02 yr-1 (Thorstensen, Fesen, & van den Bergh, 2001) which results in a maximum error of 0.013% yr-1 at the mean radius of the forward shock fragments.

We identified the forward shock fragments as tangentially oriented filamentary features at or near the outside edge of the remnant with very little or no line emission. However, lack of line emission alone may not be an indicator of a forward shock filament as there are interior knots that exhibit little line emission as well (Hughes *et al.*, 2000). Therefore, our sample may have some small contamination from non-forward shock filaments. In order to measure the radial motions of the forward shock fragments, we converted each X-ray epoch image to a polar coordinate image using a center 10$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$12 east and 26$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$33 north of the point source. This center was chosen instead of the expansion center to make the forward shock fragments as “straight” as possible in polar coordinates so that measurement errors due to complicated structures or transverse motions would be minimized. The first epoch image was shifted in radius with respect to the second epoch image and $`\chi ^2`$ was computed from the difference between the two epoch images at each shift position for each small region outlined in Figure 1. In order to determine the errors, we made ten Monte Carlo simulations of the Poisson noise for each shock fragment and calculated the rms scatter of the minimum $`\chi ^2`$ position. To calculate the expansion rate for each region, we used the distance from the optical expansion center at $`23^\mathrm{h}23^\mathrm{m}27\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}77`$, $`+58\mathrm{°}48\mathrm{}49\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}4`$ (J2000) (Thorstensen, Fesen, & van den Bergh, 2001). We avoided those regions where the node boundary and bad column artifacts would interfere with the measurements. We also avoided radially oriented filaments because our measurement method is less sensitive to the motions of such filaments. As a result of these limitations, we have not evenly sampled all azimuth ranges.

Figure 3 is a plot of expansion rate *vs.* azimuth for the forward shock fragments identified in Figure 1 and listed in Table 2. The expansion rate of the X-ray forward shock fragments ranges from 0.02 to 0.33% yr-1 with a median expansion rate of 0.21% yr-1. This is equivalent to a median velocity of the forward shock fragments of 5029 km s-1 assuming a distance of 3.4 kpc to Cas A (Reed *et al.*, 1995) and no projection effects. Based on an explosion date of a.d. 1671.3 (Thorstensen, Fesen, & van den Bergh, 2001), the median expansion parameter, m, is 0.69, where $`Rt^m`$ and $`m`$=1 corresponds to free expansion. For reference, the free expansion rate is indicated in Figure 3. The sine wave at the bottom of Figure 3 indicates the expected corrections that should be subtracted from our measurements to correct for the point source motion as discussed above.

## 3 Radio Observations, Analysis, and Results

The radio data were taken at the Very Large Array333The VLA is operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.. The center date of the first epoch radio image is 1985.67 and the center date of the second epoch radio image is 1994.87. The radio data were taken in B, C, and D configuration at 6 cm. For details on the reduction of the radio data, see, for instance, Anderson *et al.* (1991).

We measured the motion of the bright ring using the angle-averaged brightness and emissivity radial profiles. Angle-averaging enhances the contributions of the large-scale and diffuse brightness features relative to the small-scale brightness features. In this manner, the measurements are sensitive to changes in the average position of the fine scale ensemble rather than to the average of the individual changes. We have chosen to use the radio images instead of the X-ray images to measure motions of the angle-averaged bright ring for two reasons. First, the longer time span between radio observations allows us to calculate the expansion rate more accurately. Second, unlike the X-ray bright ring, the southern portion of the radio bright ring is rather uniform over a large range in azimuth (115$`\mathrm{°}`$ to 250$`\mathrm{°}`$).

To calculate the emissivity profile, we deproject the observed line-of-sight integrated radio brightness as outlined in Gotthelf *et al.* (2001). The general method is to assume that the emissivity (at least for a limited range in azimuth, in this case) can be modeled as a set of thin, uniform shells. We perform an iterative decomposition of the brightness profile as a function of radius into 1 pixel (0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$8) wide constant emissivity shells. The iteration proceeds until the residual brightness is lowered to 1% of its original peak value. We then sum all of the emissivity components at each radius to generate an average emissivity for the shell at that radius. For this analysis, we chose the azimuth range from 115$`\mathrm{°}`$ to 250$`\mathrm{°}`$, using a center of $`23^\mathrm{h}23^\mathrm{m}25\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}44`$ and $`+58\mathrm{°}48\mathrm{}52\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}3`$ (J2000) that best fits the radius of curvature of the radio bright ring. Over this azimuth range, the radio bright ring is rather uniform. Figure 4 shows the angle-averaged radial brightness profiles and the corresponding emissivity profiles. Also shown is the profile of the 1985 data with a 1% homologous expansion simulating the 0.11% yr-1 expansion rate measured for the bright ring (Koralesky *et al.*, 1998) over 9.2 years.

We measured the motion of the brightness profiles by minimizing $`\chi ^2`$ of the difference between the profiles at each epoch as a function of radial shift and amplitude scaling factor. For the emissivity profiles, we split the azimuth range into five segments and then minimized the variance of the differences between the profiles at each epoch as a function of radial shift and amplitude scaling factor for each segment. We only used the inside edge and peak of the emissivity profiles because the position of the sharp rise could be measured accurately.

The new measurements of the angle-averaged brightness and emissivity profiles of the radio bright ring show expansion rates of 0.02 $`\pm `$ 0.03% yr-1 and 0.07 $`\pm `$ 0.03% yr-1, respectively. We consider the emissivity profile measurements to be more reliable than the brightness profiles since they proved to be robust to changes in amplitude scale. Also, the more rapid fading of the bright ring, compared to the plateau, will bias the proper motion measurements of the brightness profile.

## 4 Expansion Measurement Comparisons

Table 3 is a summary of the most recent X-ray, optical, and radio expansion rate measurements. For completeness, expansion parameters, expansion timescales, and velocities (using a distance of 3.4 kpc) are also shown along with average Doppler velocities where appropriate.

Although ours is the first direct measurement of the forward shock expansion, inferred forward shock velocities have been reported. Vink *et al.* (1998) assumed (correctly) that the X-ray bright ring expansion rate is the same as the forward shock expansion rate and derived a velocity of 5200 km s-1. Willingale *et al.* (2002) use X-ray Doppler measurements to infer a forward shock velocity of 4000 km s-1 – 20% less than our measurement for the forward shock fragments.

There have been many expansion measurements of the bright ring, with most sensitive to small-scale features. The expansion rates for the different wavebands are in the approximate ratio of 3:2:1 for the optical, X-ray, and radio respectively (Thorstensen, Fesen, & van den Bergh 2001 and references therein) indicating various degrees of deceleration for the material emitting in those wavebands. Our new expansion measurement for the radio bright ring using the large-scale, diffuse emission is slower than the other measures of the bright ring. The radio bright ring small-scale expansion measurements with azimuthal variations are indicated in Figure 3 as well as the median value of the X-ray bright ring small-scale expansion measurements.

The bulk expansion of Cas A has been measured in the radio using the Bessel function nulls in the visibility plane (which is the Fourier transform of the sky brightness distribution). The reported expansions of $``$0.11% yr-1 (Anderson & Rudnick, 1995) and $``$0.22% yr-1 (Agüeros & Green, 1999) are higher than our new angle-averaged emissivity expansion rate (0.07% yr-1). The cause of this discrepancy is likely due to the more rapid fading of the bright ring compared to the plateau. The positions of the nulls are affected by the differential change in brightness causing a bias towards higher expansion rates. A direct comparison with our measurements is therefore not possible at this stage.

## 5 Discussion

For the purpose of this discussion, we will assume that the outer, thin X-ray continuum fragments represent the forward shock (Gotthelf *et al.*, 2001). Then, in an effort to understand the dynamical picture presented by the expansion measurements of the X-ray and radio bright ring small-scale features and the angle-averaged radio bright ring emissivity profile, we use a dynamical simulation by Truelove & McKee (1999) that follows the forward and reverse shock evolution of nonradiative SNRs. Their simulations trace SNR evolution from the self-similar ejecta-dominated stage to the self-similar Sedov-Taylor stage with a period of non–self-similar behavior in between. They concentrate on spherically symmetric ejecta profiles described by power-law density profiles expanding into a uniform ambient medium.

For an initial first order comparison, we use their analytical solutions for evolution in a uniform ambient medium with a uniform ejecta profile (both described by a density power-law index ($`n`$ for ejecta, $`s`$ for ambient medium) of 0) which is plotted in Figure 5. Hereafter, this simulation will be referred to as T&M(0,0). Although a higher ejecta density profile ($`n7`$) is expected for core collapse SNe, the solutions at $`n=7`$ are very similar to the $`n=0`$ solutions during the Sedov-Taylor stage and thus do not change our conclusions. Although Truelove & McKee use dimensionless units, we have normalized the time axis in Figure 5 so that the time when $`r_{FS}/r_{RS}=3/2`$ (the current observed ratio (Gotthelf *et al.*, 2001)) is the age of the remnant as determined by Thorstensen, Fesen, & van den Bergh (2001) using outlying optical knots. The radius, velocity, and expansion rate axes in Figure 5 are normalized to the median values of the forward shock fragments. Following this normalization, the predicted T&M(0,0) values for $`r_{RS}`$, $`v_{RS}`$, and reverse shock expansion rate are 1.66 pc, 1187 km s-1, and 0.074% yr-1, respectively. The T&M(0,0) predicted reverse shock expansion rate is indicated on Figure 3.

We can convert the T&M(0,0) simulation from dimensionless to physical units by assuming that the energy of the explosion is 1051 erg and the ambient density is 3.2 cm-3 (derived by Truelove & McKee from Borkowski *et al.* (1996)). The current age of 331 years, as defined by outlying optical knots (Thorstensen, Fesen, & van den Bergh, 2001), then results in an ejecta mass of 1.4 M, a forward shock radius of 2.34 pc, a forward shock velocity of 3595 km s-1, a reverse shock radius of 1.56 pc, a reverse shock velocity of 1270 km s-1, and a swept up mass of 5.9 M. The SNR is in the Sedov-Taylor stage and the reverse shock has penetrated into the inner, uniform core. The low ejecta mass is consistent with a massive star that has lost most of its mass through winds.

The similarity between our new angle-averaged radio bright ring expansion rate and the predicted reverse shock expansion rate of the T&M(0,0) simulation supports our identification of the reverse shock motion in Cas A. In this picture, the sharp rise of the radio emissivity profile indicates the location of the reverse shock. The reverse shock being at the location of the bright ring is not unprecedented. *Hubble Space Telescope* imaging of Cas A shows finger-like structures in the bright ring that are thought to be Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities created in the interface between the reverse shock and the clumped ejecta (Fesen *et al.*, 2001). The motion of the emissivity profile would still represent the motion of the reverse shock even if there is some characteristic delay between the passage of the reverse shock and the onset of the radio emission. The previous measurements of the X-ray and radio bright ring failed to measure the reverse shock motion because they were dominated by the behavior of the small-scale knots and filaments (B. Koralesky private communication).

The similar expansion rates of the X-ray bright ring and X-ray forward shock fragments can be explained if the small-scale bright ring features represent ejecta in various stages of deceleration after *passing through* the reverse shock. Some ejecta may be moving faster and some ejecta may be moving slower than the forward shock. Note on Figure 5c that the fastest moving ejecta are in free expansion and thus always have a larger *expansion rate* than the forward shock fragments in Figure 3 regardless of their velocity. We also are in a regime where the fastest ejecta also have higher *velocities* than the forward shock (Figure 5b). Indeed, dense clumps of optical ejecta are observed outside of the forward shock (Fesen, 2001). Presumably, these clumps are so dense and present such a small cross-section that they are not appreciably decelerated whereas the forward shock does experience deceleration by interaction with the circumstellar medium (CSM) (Fesen, 2001).

The above explanation can be extended to the optical and radio small-scale bright rings by considering the physical properties of the emitting material. The optical fast moving knots are dense clumps of ejecta, and have experienced little deceleration by the reverse shock before they become radiative (Reed *et al.*, 1995). The separation of the optical, X-ray, and radio emitting material by dynamical state has also been suggested by Anderson *et al.* (1994) and Hwang *et al.* (2001). The radio emission arises from synchrotron radiation which requires amplification of magnetic fields to be strong enough for the emission to be seen. This amplification results from the turbulence associated with ejecta deceleration. If significant deceleration is needed for amplification, the small-scale features in the radio would be decelerated the most. Willingale *et al.* (2002) use a similar argument for dense “bullets” of ejecta material that have penetrated the forward shock and have formed bow shocks in the ambient CSM. The optical emission from these bullets arises from shocks. The X-ray emission comes from material that has ablated off of the bullets, been heated by the bow shock, and drifted into the wake of the bullet. The radio emission then results when the bullets decelerate and electrons accelerated by the bow shock radiate in magnetic fields amplified by shearing between the bullets and the CSM.

Although we find that the T&M(0,0) simulation is helpful for understanding the average behavior of Cas A, there are important areas where the simulation and the observations disagree. One is the free expansion rate. Figure 5c shows that the T&M(0,0) free expansion rate is 0.41% yr-1 – 36% higher than the observed free expansion rate of 0.3% yr-1 (Thorstensen, Fesen, & van den Bergh, 2001). Another example of the limitations of the T&M(0,0) simulation is in describing the differences among the expansion rates of the forward shock fragments. In principle, the evolutionary state of any part of the SNR is determined from the local ratio of swept up mass to ejecta mass. Those regions of higher CSM density should produce more deceleration than those regions of lower CSM density, so the radius and velocity of the individual forward shock fragments should be at different stages on the evolutionary path. We plot in Figure 6 the radius and velocity measurements of the forward shock fragments, labelled by 45$`\mathrm{°}`$ azimuth sectors, along with the velocity evolution of the T&M(0,0) simulation. The individual forward shock fragments do not follow the T&M(0,0) evolutionary trend.

We also consider a homologous expansion model for the forward shock variations. This model has zero velocity at zero radius and the slope is determined by the median forward shock fragment velocity at the median radius. Homologous expansion also fails to describe variations in the forward shock fragments as shown in Figure 6. Homologous expansion, or any other monotonic relationship between velocity and radius, also cannot be used to describe the motions of the interior X-ray knots and filaments. The complicated interior motions are shown in Figure 7 where we compare a 0.2% homologous expansion (left) with the actual expansion (right). For reference, the point source is in the center of the circle and bright indicates the direction of motion. Both filament C and knot D are moving inwards while filament A is moving outwards. Filament B is complicated, but parts of it are also moving inward. The motions shown here and in Figure 2 cannot be accounted for with a different choice of registration between the two X-ray epochs.

We have also briefly considered two models with more realistic CSM density profiles. The first model is that of Borkowski *et al.* (1996) in which the bright ring represents part of the red supergiant wind compressed by the blue supergiant wind from the progenitor. In this model, the bulk of the X-ray emission in the bright ring comes from the swept up CSM shell. This model predicts that the velocity of the bright ring is slightly faster than the forward shock, which is not observed. Also, the predicted forward shock radius is only 1.07 times the radius of the bright ring compared to the actual value of 1.5 (Gotthelf *et al.*, 2001). This model is also limited in that it does not address the differences in proper motion between the X-ray, radio, and optical features. The second model is an extension of the models of Truelove & McKee (1999) to an $`n`$=9 ejecta density profile with an $`s`$=2 CSM density profile (M. Laming private communication). This model predicts the correct ratio between the free expansion and forward shock expansion rates. However, the predicted reverse shock expansion rate is twice that of our measured value. Both of these models predict that the bright ring is closer to the forward shock than is currently measured and both predict that the reverse shock is interior to the bright ring. Future hydrodynamic models with realistic CSM and ejecta density profiles should include predictions for the dynamics of all of the emitting plasmas.

There are numerous indications of an asymmetric SNe and/or asymmetric expansion. Fesen (2001) found high-velocity, sulfur-rich optical ejecta distributed along the “jet” axis to the northeast and southwest of the remnant beyond the forward shock radius. Willingale *et al.* (2003) find that most of the X-ray emitting material is concentrated within a double cone that is oriented at $`55\mathrm{°}`$ from north and 50$`\mathrm{°}`$ out of the plane of the sky with the northern material further away from the observer than the southern material. Rothschild & Lingenfelter (2003) require an asymmetric explosion to explain the observed 44Ti flux. One would expect explosion or expansion asymmetries to be evident in proper motion measurements of the bright ring and forward shock. Indeed, there are significant variations in the X-ray and radio expansion rates of the bright ring ($``$50%) as a function of azimuth (Koralesky *et al.*, 1998; Vink *et al.*, 1998), however they do not show the clear bipolarity seen by Fesen (2001) and Willingale *et al.* (2003). There are also significant variations in the expansion rates of the forward shock fragments as shown in Figure 3; however we do not have adequate azimuthal sampling to say at this time if the expansion rates along the “jet” axis are significantly different from the rest of the SNR.

## 6 Conclusions & Future Work

We have measured radial proper motions for the X-ray forward shock fragments in Cas A. We have also re-analyzed measurements of the radio bright ring using angle-averaged emissivity profiles to isolate and measure the motion of the reverse shock. Our conclusions are as follows:

1. The thin, continuum dominated X-ray filaments associated with the forward shock show expansion rates from 0.02% yr-1 to 0.33% yr-1. Most of the X-ray forward shock fragments have been significantly decelerated from the free expansion rate of 0.3% yr-1 (Thorstensen, Fesen, & van den Bergh, 2001).
2. The median expansion rate of the forward shock fragments is 0.21% yr-1 which is the same as the expansion rate measured for the small-scale X-ray features in the bright ring, twice the expansion rate of the small-scale radio features of the bright ring (Koralesky *et al.*, 1998; Vink *et al.*, 1998), and 2/3 the expansion rate of the small-scale optical features of the bright ring (Thorstensen, Fesen, & van den Bergh, 2001).
3. The reverse shock expansion rate, measured using angle-averaged radio emissivity profiles of the bright ring, is 0.07% yr-1 – slower than the expansion rate of the small-scale radio features of the bright ring.
4. There is general agreement between the global relations of the forward and reverse shocks (median velocity ratios and median radius ratios) and the hydrodynamical simulations of Truelove & McKee (1999) who model expansion of uniform ejecta into a uniform ambient medium (T&M(0,0)).
5. The interpretation of the small-scale bright ring features in the optical, X-ray, and radio as ejecta in various stages of deceleration after passage through the reverse shock naturally establishes a velocity gradient between the three wavebands from the densest, fastest optical knots to the most decelerated radio features.
6. The T&M(0,0) simulation does not adequately describe the observed relationship between free expansion rate and the forward shock median expansion rate. Nor does the simulation describe the observed relation between the radius and velocity of forward shock fragments at different azimuths.
7. The motions of the X-ray material at the forward shock, in the bright ring, and in the interior of the remnant are complex – the interior involving inward as well as outward motions – and cannot be modeled with a homologous expansion.
8. Because there was considerable mass loss from Cas A’s progenitor, models that include more realistic CSM density profiles such as that of Borkowski *et al.* (1996) are important for understanding the dynamics of the SNR.

This work was supported at the University of Minnesota under NSF grant AST 96-19438 and Smithsonian grant SMITHSONIAN/GO1-2051A/NASA. We thank Una Hwang, Rob Petre, and especially Paul Plucinsky for considerable help setting up the second epoch *Chandra* X-ray observations. We are grateful to Martin Laming for providing his $`s`$=2 solutions and for very helpful discussions. We appreciate discussions with Maxim Markevitch about the point spread function and plate scale of the ACIS instrument. We also thank Aneta Siemiginowska and Elizabeth Galle at the Chandra X-ray Center for help processing (and reprocessing) both epoch X-ray observations.


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# On X-ray variability in narrow line and broad line AGNs

## 1 INTRODUCTION

X-ray variability has long been known to be a common property of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). There is not only long term but also rapid X-ray variability. The rapid variability is usually thought to come from the innermost region of the compact objects, which is helpful in getting information about the central objects, such as mass, accretion rate, geometry and radiation mechanisms (Mushotzky et al. 1993).

Since the discovery of X-ray variability, there have been many different quantities to describe the variability amplitude or the timescale, such as the flux-doubling timescale (Barr & Mushotzky 1986), normalized variability amplitude (Green et al. 1993), the excess variance (Nandra et al. 1997), and the exponential timescale (Bian & Zhao 2003). Since then, a strong anti-correlation between the variability and the luminosity (hereafter variance-luminosity relation) was founded. Leighly (1999) presented a X-ray variability analysis of a sample of 23 narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) observed by ASCA and found that when NLS1 are included the variance-luminosity correlation of AGN contains much more scatter than with BLS1 only, the excess variance is typically an order of magnitude larger for NLS1s than for Seyfert 1 with broad optical lines. Turner et al. (1999) presented a sample of 36 Seyfert 1 galaxies observed by ASCA and found a strong correlation between the excess variance and one optical parameter, FWHM of H$`\beta `$, which is usually proposed to be related with the ”Eigenvector 1”, the fundamental parameters of the central engine (Boroson & Green 1992). Lu & Yu (2001) then discussed the relation between the excess variance and the reverberation central black hole masses (Kaspi et al. 2000) (hereafter variance-mass relation) in a sample of 22 AGNs observed by ASCA and found the relation between them to be strong. The variance-mass correlation can provide a plausible explanation of the variance-luminosity relation and its scatter (Turner et al. 1999; Leighly 1999; Ptak et al. 1998; Almaini et al. 2000).

Based on the circumnuclear gas difference in temperature, optical depth, density, or geometry, Turner et al. (1999) provided an attractive model, which does not depend on the difference in central black mass, to explain differences of the excess variance and the spectral index between NLS1s and Broad line AGNs (BL AGNs). However Lu & Yu (2001) suggested that the enhanced excess variance in NLS1s is due to their central smaller black holes. There are only a few NLS1s in the sample of Lu & Yu (2001). It is necessary to expand the sample to investigate the variance-mass relation, especially to include more NLS1s.

Up to now, there are only 37 AGNs whose central black hole masses are obtained by the reverberation mapping method (Ho 1998; Wandel et al. 1999; Kaspi et al. 2000). Fortunately a relation between the size of the broad line regions (BLRs) and the monochromatic luminosity at 5100$`\AA `$ was founded by Kaspi et al. (2000). This empirical formulae provides the estimation of the central black hole masses for AGNs with available FWHM of H$`\beta `$. This kind of mass estimation is widely used to investigate relations between the black hole mass and radio luminosity (Woo & Urry 2002), width of O\[III\] line (Wang & Lu 2001), and bulge mass (Bian & Zhao 2003).

In this paper we use this empirical formula to estimate the central black hole masses in an expanded sample of 41 AGNs observed by ASCA and investigate the relations between the excess variance, the photon index, the black hole mass, and the accretion rate. In particular, we wanted to determine whether the variance-mass relation founded by Lu & Yu (2001) would alter when we included more AGNs, especially NLS1s. The sample is described in Sect. 2 and the central black hole mass and the Eddington ratio are calculated in Sect. 3. The statistical analysis and discussion are presented in Sect. 4. Finally we summarize our conclusions in Sect. 5. All cosmological calculations in this paper assume $`H_0=75kms^1,\mathrm{\Omega }=1.0,\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$.

## 2 SAMPLE

The sample used in Turner et al. (1999) consists of 36 Seyfert 1 galaxies available from the ASCA archive up to Nov. 1998. The criteria in Turner et al. (1999) is that only the objects whose light curves have at least 20 counts per 256-second time bin and at least 20 bins are included in their sample. They used the excess variance to describe the X-ray variability. If one designates the count rates for the N points in each light curve as $`X_i`$, with errors $`\sigma _i`$, the X-ray excess variance is defined by,

$$\sigma _{rms}^2=\frac{1}{N\mu ^2}\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}[(X_i\mu )^2\sigma _i^2],$$

The error on $`\sigma _{rms}^2`$ is $`s_D/(\mu ^2\sqrt{N})`$, where

$$s_D^2=\frac{1}{N1}\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\{[(X_i\mu )^2\sigma _i^2]\sigma _{rms}^2\mu ^2\}^2$$

which is only the statistical error (Turner et al. 1999).

Lu & Yu (2001) also searched the ASCA archive up to Oct. 1999 to do a timing analysis using the same criteria as Turner et al. (1999). Here we adopt the variance data from Turner et al. (1999) and Lu & Yu (2001).

As in Turner’s paper (1999), for convenience we make such a split here by referring to objects with FWHM H $`\beta <2000`$ km/s as narrow line AGNs (NL AGNs) and objects with FWHM H $`\beta >2000`$ km/s as broad line objects (BL AGNs). At last, our sample consists of 41 AGNs, in which there are 18 NL AGNs and 23 BL AGNs. Although this sample is not a complete one, we suggest this large assembled sample provides new information about the difference between BL AGNs and NL AGNs. For objects with many values of the excess variance and the photon index, we adopt their mean values. The standard error of the mean is so small that we adopt the error from the above formula.

## 3 BLACK HOLE MASS AND EDDINGTON RATIO

### 3.1 Estimation of black hole masses

There are 22 AGNs in our sample whose central black hole masses are estimated by the reverberation mapping method. We use the black hole masses tabulated by Kaspi et al. (2000); values for three AGNs (Mrk 279, NGC 3516, and NGC 4593) were taken from Ho (1998). At the same time, we also use the B-magnitude and FWHM of H$`\beta `$ to estimate the masses for all 41 objects in our sample. We estimated the size of the BLR using the empirical correlation between the size and the monochromatic luminosity at 5100$`\mathrm{\AA }`$ (Kaspi et al. 2000):

$$\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{BLR}}=32.9(\frac{\lambda \mathrm{L}_\lambda (5100\mathrm{\AA })}{10^{44}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1})^{0.7}\mathrm{lt}\mathrm{days}$$
(1)
where $`\lambda L_\lambda (5100\mathrm{\AA })`$ is estimated from the B-magnitude by adopting an average optical spectral index of -0.3 and accounting for Galactic redding and K-correction (Veron-Cetty et al. 2001). If the H$`\beta `$ widths reflect the Keplerian velocity of the line-emitting BLR material around the central black hole, then the viral mass is given by:

$$\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{bh}}=\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{BLR}}\mathrm{V}^2\mathrm{G}^1$$
(2)
where G is the gravitational constant, V is the velocity of the line-emitting material. V can be estimated from the H$`\beta `$ width. Assuming the random orbits, Kaspi (2000) related the $`V`$ to the FWHM of the H$`\beta `$ emission line by $`V=(\sqrt{3}/2)\mathrm{FWHM}_{[\mathrm{H}\beta ]}`$.

### 3.2 Eddington ratio

In order to investigate the relation between X-ray variability and the accretion rate, the Eddington rates are calculated for these 41 AGNs. We calculated the ratio of the bolometric luminosity $`L_{bol}`$ to the Eddington luminosity $`L_{Edd}`$. $`L_{bol}`$ is usually calculated by $`L_{bol}=9\lambda L_\lambda (5100\AA )`$(Kaspi et al. 2000), where $`L_\lambda (5100\AA )`$ is the monochromatic luminosity at 5100$`\mathrm{\AA }`$. The value of $`L_{bol}/L_{Edd}`$ gives a direct measurement of the Eddington ratio.

The estimated black hole masses are listed in table 1. Column (1) lists the name of objects, column (2) the FWHM of H$`\beta `$ $`(kms^1)`$, Column (3) the log of black hole mass in $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ calculated using equations (1) and (2), Column (4) the log of the reverberation mapping mass in $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ adopted from Kaspi et al. (2000) and Ho (1998) , and Column (5) the Eddington ratio. The excess variances are from Table 1 in Turner et al. (1999) and Table 1 in Lu & Yu (2001). The photon indices $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ASCA}`$ are from Table 1 in Turner et al. (1999). For objects with both the reverberation mapping mass and the calculated mass using equations (1) and (2), we adopt the former because the former is more reliable.

## 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

### 4.1 Variance-mass relation

In Fig. 1 we show the excess variance versus the central black hole masses. In Fig. 2 we show the excess variance versus the Eddington ratio. We find the tight variance-mass correlation founded by Lu & Yu (2001) still remains when we included many other AGNs, especially NL AGNs. In Fig. 1 we also show the straight lines plotted in Fig. 1 in Lu & Yu (2001). Most of the objects are located in the region between the lines $`log\sigma _{rms}^2=3.75log(M_{bh}/\text{ }\mathrm{M}_{})`$ and $`log\sigma _{rms}^2=5.75log(M_{bh}/\text{ }\mathrm{M}_{})`$. We fix the slope of the variance-mass relation as -1 to fit the data in Fig.1. A Spearman rank test gives $`log\sigma _{rms}^2=(5.08\pm 0.11)log(M_{bh}/\text{ }\mathrm{M}_{})`$ and the correlation coefficients (R) is -0.65 corresponding to a probability of $`P<10^4`$ that the correlation is caused by a random factor.

There are astrophysical reasons to relate the excess variance with the accretion rates. However we find there is no strong correlation between them. We plot the excess variance versus the Eddington ratio in Fig. 2. A Spearman rank test gives $`log\sigma _{rms}^2=(1.88\pm 0.16)+(0.39\pm 0.17)log(L_{bol}/L_{Edd})`$ ($`R=0.35`$, $`P=0.0309`$). When considering only NL AGNs or BL AGNs, we find there is no correlation between the excess variance and the Eddington ratio if we exclude NGC 3227 (Lu & Yu 2001).

### 4.2 Relation between photon index and Eddington ratio

Although weak relation between the excess variance and the Eddington ratio is found here, we find there is a strong correlation between the photon index in 2-10keV ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ASCA}`$) and the Eddington ratio (Fig. 3). A Spearman rank test gives $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ASCA}=(2.11\pm 0.05)+(0.26\pm 0.05)log(L_{bol}/L_{Edd})`$ ($`R=0.70`$, $`P<10^4`$). The correlation between $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ASCA}`$ and Eddington ratio still remains medium strong if we only consider BL AGNS (R=0.26) or NL AGNs (R=0.48).

### 4.3 Discussion

We use equations (1) and (2) to calculate the black hole masses for all 41 AGNs in our sample. The errors of the calculated black hole masses using equations (1) and (2) is mainly from the accuracy of equation (1); the geometry and the dynamics of the BLRs, especially the inclination to the line of sight in NL AGNs (Bian & Zhao 2002). The error in the mass estimation using equations (1) and (2) is about 0.5 dex (Wang & Lu 2001). Fig. 4 shows that our calculated masses from equations (1) and (2) is consistent with the reverberation mapping masses (see Table 1). The variance-mass relation in NL AGNs is consistent with that in BL AGNs founded by Lu & Yu (2001). It is plausible that there exists a variance-mass relation for not only BL AGNs but also NL AGNs. There is a weak correlation between the excess variance and the Eddington ratio. There is no correlation between them if we just consider BL AGNs or NL AGNs. Turner et al. (1999) have suggested that the different circumnuclear gas of NL AGNs may lead to the different X-ray variance between BL AGNs and NL AGNs. The difference of the circumnuclear gas is caused by the higher accretion rate in NL AGNs. The strong variance-mass correlation and the weak correlation between the variability and the Eddington ratio suggest that the enhanced hard X-ray excess variance in NL AGNs founded by Leighly (1999) is mainly due to the smaller black hole, not the difference of circumnuclear gas around NL AGNs. The variance-mass anti-correlation can be interpreted that X-ray variance is a result of some global coherent variations in the X-ray emission region which is scaled by the size of the black hole in AGNs (Lu & Yu 2001).

Equation (1), used to estimate the black hole mass, is derived in the sample of Kaspi et al. (2000). However, most AGNs in the sample of Kaspi et al. (2000) are BL AGNs. Whether equation (1) is suitable for NL AGNs is a matter of debate. The masses for NLS1s estimated from equation (1) appear to be consistent with that from the the mass-velocity dispersion relation in AGNs (Wang & Lu 2000), which showed that equation (1) can be used in NL AGNs in spite of the larger uncertainty. Turner et al. (1999) showed that there is a strong correlation between the excess variance and the FWHM H$`\beta `$. For our sample we also find a strong variance-FWHM correlation ($`R=0.64`$, $`P<10^4`$), which is scatter than the variance-mass correlation ($`R=0.65`$, $`P<10^4`$). The stronger variance-mass correlation showed that FWHM H$`\beta `$ can be combined with the luminosity to estimate the central mass. Perhaps the early finding of the variance-FWHM correlation is due to the variance-mass correlation. At the same time we should notice the uncertainty in equation (1) leads to just a little stronger variance-mass correlation.

We also find there exists a strong correlation between the photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ASCA}`$ and the Eddington ratio. Lu & Yu (1999) compiled a sample of Seyfert 1 galaxies and QSOs and found these objects to be distributed in two distinct classes in the plane of ROSAT soft X-ray photon index versus the Eddington ratio (the ratio of the ionizing luminosity to the Eddington luminosity). There is a strong correlation between ROSAT photon index and the Eddington ratio in these two classes. They also plot $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ASCA}`$ versus the Eddington ratio for several objects with available ASCA data. Here we use the bolometric luminosity rather than the ionizing luminosity to calculate the Eddington ratio and find $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ASCA}`$ is strongly correlated with the Eddington ratio. The enhanced $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ASCA}`$ in NL AGNs (Leighly 1999) is intimately related with the Eddington ratio. First we assume that the interpretation of Lu & Yu (1999) on the split in the photon index-accretion rates plane is correct, there are two distinct accretion disks in Seyfert 1 galaxies and QSOs. If we take $`log(L_{bol}/L_{Edd})=1.1`$ (Lu & Yu 1999) as the critical value for ADAF (advection-dominated accretion flow) disk class and thin disk class, from Fig. 3 we find the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ASCA}`$ increases with the Eddington ratio in ADAF and thin disk classes. The relation between $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ASCA}`$ and the Eddington ratio can be understood in the frame of the accretion disk and the corona. For a thin disk, the disk luminosity to irradiate the corona increases as the Eddington rate increases. This can cause the corona to cool efficiently owing to Compton cooling and cooler corona producing few hard X-ray photons leads to large $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ASCA}`$. For the ADAF model of low accretion rate, the optical depth increases and causes a correspondent increase in the Compton $`\gamma `$-parameter when the Eddington ratio increases (Esin et al. 1997). Larger optical depth will result in a harder and smoother X-ray spectrum index, which is in conflict with our founded relation between $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ASCA}`$ and the Eddington ratio. A accretion disk consisting two zones (outer thin disk and inner ADAF disk) is our preferable interpretation. The truncation radius of the two zones decreases with increasing Eddington ratio. The ADAF X-ray photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ASCA}`$ becomes dramatically softer because the radiation from the disk is Compton-scattered by the hot gas in ADAF as the Eddington rate increases. If the interpretation of Lu & Yu (1999) is not correct, the strong correlation between $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ASCA}`$ and the Eddington ratio in the sample of NL and BL AGNs suggests the ADAF disk is not required and there exists a simple thin accretion disk. Much work on detail spectral fitting of AGNs using ADAF and/or thin disk models is needed to clarify this question in the future.

## 5 CONCLUSIONS

We investigated the relations between hard X-ray variability, photon index, the black hole mass, and the Eddington ratio in a collected sample of 41 BL AGNs and NL AGNs. NL AGNs follow the same variance-mass relation in BL AGNs founded by Lu & Yu (2001). The X-ray variability is mainly due to the black hole mass, not the accretion rate. A strong correlation between the hard X-ray photon index and the Eddington ratio suggests there exists the thin disk in the inner region of the AGNs. If the suggestion of two distinct accretion classes (Lu & Yu 1999) is correct, there exists a kind of two zone accretion disk, in which the outer zone is a thin disk, and the inner zone is an ADAF disk. Otherwise, the accretion process is the thin disk accretion and the ADAF accretion is not required.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work has been supported by the NSFC (No. 10273007).


text:
# Renewed activity in the radio galaxy PKS B1545-321: twin edge-brightened beams within diffuse radio lobes

## 1 Introduction

The morphologies of the lobes of double radio galaxies and the variations in the spectral index over them have recently been used to infer the history of the central engine activity (Roettiger et al., 1994; Subrahmanyan, Saripalli & Hunstead, 1996; Schoenmakers et al., 2000). Such studies indicate that apart from precession and other large-angle changes in the central engine axis, variations in the beam activity also include interruptions: beams sometimes stop and restart. Giant radio galaxies (GRGs; Saripalli et al. (1986)) have proved to be a fertile ground for examples of interrupted nuclear activity. Subrahmanyan, Saripalli & Hunstead (1996) and Schoenmakers et al. (2000) have drawn attention to several GRGs where morphological properties indicated an interruption in central activity. The evidence is in the form of a nested pair of radio sources having the same central radio core. Such sources are excellent opportunities for studying the development of new beams in an environment that is different from the usual ambient medium — the thermal X-ray gas halo or the thermal intergalactic medium (IGM) — of typical radio galaxies. In this respect, it is highly desirable to not only have more examples of such double-double sources but also sources where the new beams are observed to be fully embedded within the lobes of the older activity. Recently, Saripalli, Subrahmanyan & Udaya Shankar (2002) presented a detailed study of such a source where the inner double is clearly imaged and one side is observed to be fully embedded within older lobe plasma. Herein we present the finest example yet of such a source, PKS B1545$``$321, in which the inner double is traced all the way from the core to its bright ends and where both inner components are observed to be completely enveloped by outer lobe plasma.

An 843 MHz image of PKS B1545$``$321 was made by Jones & McAdam (1992) using the Molonglo observatory synthesis telescope (MOST); this showed a continuous bridge of emission over its entire length along with multiple peaks along a central ridge. An ATCA image of the source (Subrahmanyan, Saripalli & Hunstead, 1996), which was made at 22 cm wavelength and with higher angular resolution, clearly showed a pair of bright inner compact components lying along the source axis. These components were observed to be well recessed from the ends and symmetrically located on either side of a central radio core. The unusual morphology was suggested to be a result of restarted activity after an interrutption. An optical host has been identified at the location of the radio core; the galaxy has a $`b_J`$ magnitude of 17.5 and its redshift is $`z=0.1082`$ (Simpson et al., 1993).

In this paper we present our new multi-frequency observations of PKS B1545$``$321 using the ATCA, which have been made with full polarization and with higher dynamic range and resolution as compared to previous images. The higher quality images have revealed the inner components to be a spectacular pair of beams that are traced continuously from the central core and terminate at bright heads. These twin beams are fully embedded within diffuse lobes and their ends are well recessed. We discuss the restarting phenomenon in this source and the nature of the interaction between the restarted beams and the surrounding older cocoon material.

Herein we adopt a flat cosmology with parameters $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{}=0.3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$, and a Hubble constant $`H_{}=65`$ km s-1 Mpc-1. PKS B1545$``$321 is at a luminosity distance of 488 Mpc. The source has a total angular size of $`9\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}0`$ and we derive the proper linear size to be 1.04 Mpc.

## 2 ATCA radio images of PKS B1545$``$321

The radio source was observed using the East-West ATCA separately in a compact 375 m, an intermediate 1.5 km and an extended 6 km configuration. The observations were aimed at imaging the largest angular scale structures in this $`9\mathrm{}`$ size source with a few arcsec resolution at 22 and 12 cm wavelengths. Each of the three Earth-rotation Fourier synthesis observations were made in full polarization and simultaneously using two frequency bands 128 MHz wide centered at 1384 and 2496 MHz. The continuum bands were covered in 13 independent channels. The flux scale was set using observations of PKS B1934$``$638 whose flux density was adopted to be 14.94 and 11.14 Jy respectively at 22 and 12 cm. The interferometric visibility data were calibrated and imaged using miriad; data in both observing bands were separately reduced. Continuum images were constructed from the multi-channel data using bandwidth synthesis techniques and the images were deconvolved using the Steer-Dewdney-Ito algorithm. Three iterations of phase self calibration were performed.

The total flux density of PKS B1545$``$321 is 1.8 Jy at 1384 MHz and 1.1 Jy at 2496 MHz based on the new ATCA data. In Table 1 we summarize the flux density measurements for this source. The overall spectrum is curved and the spectral index $`\alpha 1.1`$ between 843 and 2496 MHz ($`S_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$).

A 12 cm wavelength continuum image, showing the entire source, is in Fig. 1. The linear gray scale representation shows (1) oppositely directed collimated beams terminating in bright components, (2) low surface brightness edge-brightened double lobes which appear to surround the twin beams and extend well beyond, and (3) an unresolved core at the common center. We refer to the first and second structures as the inner and outer doubles respectively; the northern and southern lobes of the inner double are called N2 and S2, those of the outer double are called N1 and S1. Both the doubles are collinear with the compact central core component.

### 2.1 The Outer Lobes

The structure in the outer lobes at 22 cm is shown in Fig. 2. Transverse to the radio axis, the width of the radio source is fairly constant over most of its length. Both lobes have a similar overall morphology and in both cases the ratio of the lobe length to lobe width is $`3`$. Both lobes are edge-brightened and sharply bounded; in particular, the NW lobe has a pair of emission peaks along a relatively brighter rim at its western end. There are no strong hotspots or any compact structures at the ends of the lobes. The two lobes are wavy and the side-to-side undulations are inversion symmetric about the core position.

In the central regions the bridge flares transverse to the radio axis. The flaring is different for the two lobes. Whereas N1 has extensions on both sides, S1 shows an extension only to one side, the NE side. There is a curious “zone of avoidance” at the center, that is oriented transverse to the radio axis, where the intensity is weak. This gap in emission is displaced from the location of the core: whereas S1 stops short of the core along an edge that is south of the core, N1 continues past the core position and stops at an edge south of the core. Interestingly, the inner lobes show no emission gap and S2 appears continuous across the gap observed between S1 and N1.

The distribution of the spectral index over the lobes, between 12 and 22 cm, is shown in Fig. 3. The 12 cm visibility data were tapered and imaged to produce a low resolution image and the 22 cm visibility data were imaged with nominal resolution. The deconvolved images, which had similar resolutions, were then convolved to a common final resolution of $`13\mathrm{}\times 7\mathrm{}`$. Effectively, this analysis ensured that the images used for computing the spectral index distribution image shown in Fig. 3 had been constructed from data with similar spatial frequency range. The observed spectral index is close to 0.6 over the brighter regions at the NW end of the source; at the SE end the spectral index is around 0.7. Overall, there is a steepening of the spectral index from the ends of the outer lobes towards the center where $`\alpha `$ exceeds 0.9. In N1 and S1 the regions with the steepest spectra appear to avoid the brightest parts; in particular, the radio spectrum is relatively steeper with $`\alpha 1.0`$ along the SW edge of S1. The spectral indices in these regions, with low surface brightness at 12 cm, are estimated to have an error of 20%.

We have determined the distribution of the polarized intensity over the source at 12 and 22 cm. The rotation measure (RM) has a mean value of $``$14.4 rad m-2 over the source with a 1-$`\sigma `$ scatter of 6 rad m-2. We do not observe any significant changes, within the errors in the measurement, in the RM distribution over the source. The distribution in the 22 cm polarized intensity is shown in Fig. 4; overlaid are vectors showing the orientation of the projected electric field with bar lengths proportional to the fractional polarization. The vector orientations have had the small correction for Faraday rotation that was derived based on the assumption that the observed RM distribution is owing to a foreground screen. The projected magnetic field, which is perpendicular to the electric field orientations shown in the figure, is circumferential along the boundaries of the outer lobes. The fractional polarization is enhanced along the lobe boundary. The projected B-field is aligned with the total intensity ridges in the two lobes and closely follows the bends and wiggles along the lengths of the outer lobes; as expected, the B-field orientation appears to be along the flow in the synchrotron plasma. However, the distribution in the B-field, in this low-resolution image, is perpendicular to the source axis over the inner lobe N2 where we expect the flow in the outer lobe N1 to be along the source axis. It is likely that towards N2 the polarized intensity in this image is dominated by emission from N2 and the observed field represents the orientation in N2 and not in N1. The polarized intensity distribution shows much more structure as compared to the total intensity distribution. The fractional polarization is distinctly lower in the regions of the outer lobes close to the ends of N2 and S2; these can be recognized as being due to beam depolarization because the E-vectors here are observed to sharply change orientation. There are also regions within the outer lobes where polarized intensity is low and, consequently, undetected. They are observed to be located somewhat offset from the ridges, close to where the ridge lines have sharp bends, and preferentially on the concave side. The low polarized intensity at some of these locations might also be due to beam depolarization. The wings transverse to the radio axis at the center of the radio galaxy show parallel B-fields, this is particularly noticeable along the inner edge of S1. Additionally, the wings have a relatively high (30–60%) fractional polarization.

To summarize the polarization properties, overall there is order in the magnetic field structure and we recognize the following components: (1) the parallel B-field that closely follows the ridges in the two lobes over several hundreds of kiloparsecs, (2) the parallel B-field along the edges of most of the source, and (3) the parallel B-field in the wings on both sides of the “zone of avoidance”.

We estimated the average depolarization ratio (as a ratio of the percentage polarization at 22 cm to that at 12 cm) over different parts of the outer lobes: the ratio is about 0.96 at the SE end and close to 1.0 at the NW end. In the central parts the ratio falls to about 0.92. Depolarization is most pronounced on the SW sides of the inner parts of N1 and S1 where the ratio is as low as 0.83. These are the parts with the steepest spectral indices and, as discussed in section 3.1, these parts are on the side where extended X-ray emission has been detected.

### 2.2 The Inner Double

A high resolution 12 cm image of the inner double is shown in Fig. 5 with a beam of FWHM $`5\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}1\times 2\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5`$. We also show, in Fig. 6, a 12 cm image made excluding visibilities with spatial frequencies less than 3 k$`\lambda `$; this image reproduces only structure with angular scales smaller than about $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5`$ and shows the inner lobes without the diffuse underlying outer lobe emission. The total flux density of the inner double is 53 and 78 mJy respectively at 12 and 22 cm. The inner double is observed to be twin oppositely directed beams that are traced continuously from the core and terminating at bright axially elongated cylindrical components. N2 and S2 consist of bright ends, short trails, and relatively lower-surface-brightness emission connecting the ends to the core. The striking feature of the inner double is the near constancy of its width over its length; this is best represented visually in the 12 cm total intensity gray-scale image in Fig. 1. The deconvolved FWHM, derived using the image in Fig. 6, is about $`6\mathrm{}`$$`7\mathrm{}`$ all along the $`3\mathrm{}`$ length of the inner double.

The bright ends are resolved in the direction transverse to the radio axis and have deconvolved FWHM in the range $`3\mathrm{}`$$`5\mathrm{}`$ corresponding to a linear size of $`8`$ kpc; this is less than the FWHM widths of the short trails and lower surface brightness parts of the inner double. As shown in Fig. 1, these bright peaks at the ends of inner double are the brightest components in the entire source; however, their surface brightness (at 12 and 22 cm) is in the range 0.1–0.4 mJy arcsec-2, which is much lower than what is usually observed in the hotspots of powerful radio galaxies. The peak at the end of S2 is brighter and has a smaller deconvolved size — both by factors of 1.4 — as compared to the peak at the end of N2. Additionally, the bright trail behind the peak in S2 is observed to extend more than twice the distance as compared to that in N2. The low surface brightness parts of N2 show intensity variations with maxima 3–4 times the minima; the S2 beam is more uniform.

The ATCA observations presented in this paper show that the bright trails in N2 and S2, i.e., on both sides of the inner double, have double peaked transverse profiles. In Fig. 7, we show a slice profile made transverse to the axis in the bright trail close to the end of S2 to display this characteristic. The observations suggest that the emission is predominantly from a cylindrical sheath. In the lower surface brightness parts closer to the core, the present observations do not have the surface brightness sensitivity (at this resolution and observing frequency) to conclusively differentiate between edge-brightened and filled emission.

The 12-cm polarization in the inner double is shown in Figs. 8 & 9 with the same resolution as the total intensity distribution in Fig. 5. The polarized intensity is shown in Fig. 8 using gray scales. The electric vectors are shown in Fig. 9 with lengths representing the fractional polarization and with their orientations corrected for Faraday rotation assuming a uniform RM of $``$14.4 rad m-2. At the end of S2, there are two peaks in polarized intensity located on either side of the peak in total intensity. In the bright trail at the end of S2 there is an enhancement of the polarized intensity, as well as the fractional polarization, along the edges. Similarly, at the end of N2, the peaks in polarized intensity avoid the total intensity peak and are located along the boundary. In the brighter regions at the ends of the inner double the projected magnetic field is circumferential along the edges and the fractional polarization takes on values as high as 45%. The distributions of the polarized intensity, as well as that of the fractional polarization, show an additional ridge running along the middle on both sides of the inner double. Along this central line, the magnetic field is oriented perpendicular to the source axis and the percentage polarization reaches 40%. The variations in the polarized intensity transverse to the axis are perhaps because of beam depolarization owing to a flip in the orientation of the linear polarization in going from the central ridge line to the edges.

The distribution in the spectral index $`\alpha `$ over the inner lobes is shown in Fig. 10. Images of the inner lobes at 12 and 22 cm were separately constructed using visibilities restricted to a common range of 3–29 k$`\lambda `$, both images were convolved to a common final beam of FWHM $`11\mathrm{}\times 7\mathrm{}`$ and these were used in deriving the distribution in the spectral index. The spectral index is fairly constant at about $`\alpha 0.7`$ over the bright ends and associated trails in the inner double. However, there is some evidence for a steeper spectral index with $`\alpha 1.0`$ in the low brightness parts closer to the core.

The inner double is curved over its entire length; N2 and S2 bend to the SW with a mirror symmetry. If we extrapolate the curved trajectories of the inner double, N2 meets the end of the N1 at the recessed peak along the western rim and S2 appears heading for the SW tip of S1.

### 2.3 The radio core and host galaxy

The radio core is unresolved in our images and has a deconvolved size $`<1\mathrm{}`$ FWHM. The core flux density is 4.5 mJy at 22 cm and has a spectral index $`\alpha =0.44`$ between 22 and 12 cm. The core power is $`1.2\times 10^{23}`$ W Hz-1 at 1.4 GHz and is 0.25% of the total source power.

The host galaxy, coincident with the radio core, is derived to have an absolute magnitude $`M_B=20.9`$. The SuperCOSMOS (SCOS) digitization of the UK Schmidt plates in the red and blue (Fig. 11) show that the parent galaxy is symmetric in the red but has isophotal distortions and patchiness in the blue. There is an indication of a central dust lane oriented orthogonal to the axis of the radio galaxy.

## 3 Discussion

### 3.1 The relic outer lobes

The source has a total radio power of $`5\times 10^{25}`$ W Hz-1 at 1.4 GHz. Given the absolute optical magnitude of the host galaxy, the radio power places the source above the FR I-FR II dividing line (Owen, 1993) and in the powerful radio galaxy regime. This is consistent with the edge brightened morphology of the outer lobes and the spectral steepening in the outer lobes towards the core. However, the outer lobes do not appear to have any hotspots at their ends. This suggests that the outer double is not currently being fed by beams from the center and is a relic of a powerful radio galaxy created by past activity in the central engine. The relatively low and uniform surface brightness distribution across the outer lobes and the overall steep spectrum support the relic hypothesis.

Radio galaxies that are observed to have small axial ratios and fat double type structure tend to have relatively steep radio spectra as compared to other powerful double radio sources and they are presumed to be relics (Muxlow & Garrington, 1991); however, PKS B1545$``$321 is not a fat double. The circumferential magnetic fields, increased percentage polarization towards the lobe edges and the sharp boundaries of the outer lobes indicate a compression of the lobe plasma as it expands against the external medium. Similarly, the high fractional polarization and parallel B-field in the central flare suggest a compression of backflowing lobe against material in the “zone of avoidance”. These observations, which indicate that the lobes are dynamically evolving, may be reconciled with the lack of hotspots at the ends if the beams feeding the outer lobes have been switched off relatively recently. We find that the core power and the total power in PKS B1545$``$321 are consistent with the correlation found between these quantities for active radio galaxies (Giovannini et al., 1988); this again implies that the outer lobes have not faded significantly since the beams to these lobes were switched off. Additionally, the concordance suggests that the core power has not changed significantly as a consequence of the restarting of the beams and that the current beam power is likely to be the same as it was prior to the interruption. Assuming that the core power was about $`1.2\times 10^{23}`$ W Hz-1 at 1.4 GHz while the beams fed the outer lobes, the correlation found by Giovannini et al. (1988) indicates that the total power of the source was at most about $`10^{27}`$ W Hz-1 at 0.4 GHz. This implies that the radio power of the outer lobes has reduced by at most a factor of 10, and - assuming a tangled magnetic field - adiabatically expanded by at most a factor of 1.4, since the beams were switched off. It may be noted here that the closeness of the brightness peaks in the outer lobes to the boundaries of the lobes indicates that the true expansion factor is much less than this limit. If the density of the ambient IGM is assumed to be at most 10$`\mathrm{\Omega }_B=10\times 0.019h^2`$ (Burles et al., 1999), the relic outer lobes, which have a minimum energy density of $`10^{12}`$ ergs cm-3, would expand with a speed of at least $`0.01c`$ assuming ram pressure confinement. Together with the limit on the expansion factor, we infer that the time elapsed since the beams ceased feeding hotspots at the ends of N1 and S1 is $`<7\times 10^7`$ yr.

N1 is observed on the sky to extend beyond the core whereas S1 appears to be docked 100 kpc short of the core. In the lobes of powerful double radio galaxies that extend to the center, the bridges are either continuous or are observed to be docked symmetrically about the core. Assuming that lobes do not backflow past the core, the observed structure in PKS B1545$``$321 suggests that the source is not on the plane of the sky and, additionally, the lobe structure is intrinsically asymmetric about the core. N1 and S1 are docked at different distances from the core; additionally, the deviations from axi-symmetry may be different for the two lobes.

We have extracted archival ROSAT total-band PSPC images of the field, smoothed the $`15\mathrm{}`$-pixel counts with a Gaussian of FWHM $`1\mathrm{}`$, and displayed the X-ray brightness distribution in Fig. 12. Contours of the 22-cm radio intensity are overlaid. Extended low surface brightness X-ray emission is observed with a peak at a location offset to the SW of the radio core. The sky positions of objects, which are classified as galaxies (based on SCOS digitization of the UK Schmidt red and blue plates) and are cataloged in SCOS to have magnitudes within $`\pm 3`$ of that of the host galaxy, are marked in the figure. The GRG is in a neighbourhood with a high galaxy count: this has been noted by Subrahmanyan, Saripalli & Hunstead (1996) who found that in the vicinity of this GRG the sky density of galaxies within $`\pm 2`$ mag. of the host galaxy is a factor of 6 greater than the mean. We have examined the galaxy distribution within different magnitude ranges centered at the magnitude of the host galaxy and find no evidence for any concentration of galaxies at the location of the X-ray peak.

The X-ray gas is not observed to extend along the “zone of avoidance” where there is a deficit of synchrotron emission. However, the central radio wing to the SW of the core is observed to extend towards the X-ray peak: this radio component occupies a gap in the X-ray emission and the X-ray contours follow the radio contours suggesting that the synchrotron plume has pushed aside the thermal gas. The close correspondence between the X-ray and radio emission suggests a physical interaction between the radio plume and the gas responsible for the X-ray emission. X-ray gas with comparable brightness is not observed on other sides of the radio source and this argues against a scenario where the X-ray gas was centered on the host galaxy before it was displaced by the synchrotron gas.

Strom & Jägers (1988) suggested that thermal gaseous halos, which are ubiquitous in giant ellipticals, may be the cause for gradients in the observed Faraday depolarization along radio lobes. In the case of PKS B1545$``$321, the offset thermal gas environment observed in the PSPC images, along with any thermal gas halo associated with the host elliptical galaxy, may be responsible for the increased depolarization observed towards the central regions of the outer lobes and, in particular, towards the SW parts.

### 3.2 The renewed activity

Although the outer lobes appear to be relics of a powerful radio source in which the energy injection via beams has recently ceased, the nucleus is currently active as evidenced by the visibility of the radio core. The current activity appears as twin beams with bright ends that are well recessed from the ends of the source. At these ends the B-field is circumferential and the polarized intensity peaks are on either side of the total intensity peaks suggesting that the beams terminate at these relatively bright components located well short of the ends of the outer lobes. When powerful beams that terminate in hotspots at the ends of FR II double radio sources decline in beam power, we would expect the forward advance speeds of the hotspots to decline and the decreased beam power may also impact on the beam collimation and stability; we would not expect the hotspots to recess or retreat. The two double radio structures share a common core component and a common radio axis, both are likely to have been produced as a result of different episodes of nuclear activity in this common central engine and the restarting has happened without any change in the direction of the ejection axis. PKS B1545$``$321 appears to be a striking example of restarted activity in a powerful radio galaxy in which new beams are observed in the act of ploughing through the relict cocoon of past activity.

The 1.4 GHz total power of the inner double is $`2\times 10^{24}`$ W Hz-1 placing it below the FR I-FR II divide. The inner double has a linear size of 340 kpc and if we compare with 3CRR sources in the size range 300–400 kpc, the inner double in PKS B1545$``$321 has a radio power that is more than an order of magnitude below the lowest power observed for edge brightened sources. Given its relatively low power, the structure of the inner double might be expected to resemble edge-darkened sources and have bright inner jets and a bright core. However, the morphology of the inner double is edge brightened and this is typical of powerful FR II radio sources spanning a wide range of linear sizes. Additionally, no bright jets are observed and the core contains less than 5% of the total power of the inner double: these properties are also more representative of FR II type sources (Muxlow & Garrington, 1991).

The inner double has an FR II morphology. The relation between the optical magnitude of the host galaxy versus radio power (Owen, 1993) indicates that an FR II type double source, with an optical magnitude corresponding to the host of PKS B1545$``$321, would have a 1.4 GHz radio power in the range $`8\times 10^{24}`$$`2\times 10^{27}`$ W Hz-1 if it were evolving in an IGM environment. The observed radio power of the inner lobe is lower by a factor in the range 4–1000. FR II sources in IGM environments are inferred to be advancing with speeds a few percent of the speed of light (Scheuer, 1995). If we assume that the low observed power in the inner lobes is owing to a 1D expansion of the post-hotspot material (which has a tangled B-field) along the source axis and in the relatively low density cocoon environment, we infer that the inner lobes are advancing with speeds that are a factor 2–64 greater than that in sources in IGM environments. The inner double in PKS B1545$``$321 is expanding with speeds exceeding 0.1$`c`$ and its age is inferred to be less than $`<5\times 10^6`$ yr.

Edge-brightened radio galaxies over a wide range of linear sizes from parsecs to several megaparsecs have overall a self-similar morphology (Alexander, 2000; Subrahmanyan, Saripalli & Hunstead, 1996); the inner double in PKS B1545$``$321, although it is edge brightened has a very different structure. The lobes of the inner double are about 12–14 kpc wide all along their lengths. This width is larger than known jet widths; however, the high axial ratio lobes do not resemble the cocoons that we see typically associated with FR II radio galaxies. The inner double, viewed as a separate radio source, has one of the highest axial ratio lobes among known edge brightened radio galaxies and, as mentioned in section 2.2, a remarkable feature of the inner double is its almost constant width. The high axial ratio in which the total length is about 26 times the width, is nearly twice larger than the highest axial ratio observed among 3CRR radio galaxies that have sizes 300–400 kpc.

The indications are that the unusual circumstances in which the new beams are evolving — emerging into a relic synchrotron plasma instead of ambient thermal gas — dramatically alters the dynamical evolution resulting in an edge-brightened structure, with a high axial ratio, in a relatively low luminosity source.

### 3.3 The structure and development of the restarted beams

The edge-brightening observed in total intensity along the boundaries of the short trails at the ends of N2 and S2, together with the flip in the B-field from being transverse to the radio axis along the centre to a parallel configuration at both boundaries, suggests that the flow is along the center and post-hotspot plasma forms a sheath or cocoon. The enhanced fractional polarization at the boundaries, together with the parallel B-field configuration, suggest a compression of this sheath plasma. Although the inner lobes are observed to be of constant width, implying that the lateral expansion is insignificant, the surface brightness in the inner lobes decreases and the spectral index steepens towards the core. The inner lobe properties, including the width and surface brightness, are observed to be continuous and unchanged as S2 traverses the “zone of avoidance”.

The new beam propagates into the cocoon formed in the past activity phase. The ambient medium is, therefore, not galactic or intergalactic thermal gas, as is usually the case, but synchrotron plasma. The two parameters that govern the beam propagation: the Mach number of the jet flow, which depends on the sound speed in the ambient gas, and the ratio of the density of the jet material to the ambient medium will both be unusual. The density of the synchrotron plasma is expected to be lower than that for an IGM environment unless there is substantial entrainment. The lobes of GRGs are overpressured with respect to the IGM (Subrahmanyan & Saripalli, 1993; Saripalli, Subrahmanyan & Udaya Shankar, 2002). In cluster environments, where the ambient intra-cluster medium (ICM) surrounding radio sources has been observed, the radio lobes create synchrotron cavities sweeping aside most of the ambient gas (Böhringer et al., 1993). These suggest that the sound speed in the environment of the inner lobes is higher as compared to the IGM environment encountered at the ends of the beams that created the outer lobes. Additionally, the density contrast between the beams and the environment is lower for the restarted beams. Cocoon formation is pronounced when light, supersonic beams encounter high densities (Norman et al., 1982); in the case of the restarted beams only weak shocks are expected as the (mildly supersonic) beam impinges on the relic synchrotron cocoon. The beam is expected to propagate almost ballistically and the formation of strong hotspots as well as cocoons is inhibited. The shocked post-hotspot jet material would not spread out; instead, it is expected to move forwards trailing behind the hotspot (Williams, 1991). The extremely narrow, constant width and weak cocoon with decreasing surface brightness towards the center that we see in the inner double of PKS B1545$``$321 could be representing just such a trail. The surface brightness at the ends of the inner double is significantly lower than the typical surface brightness of hotspots in edge-brightened radio galaxies (Hardcastle et al., 1998): this is consistent with the weak Mach disks that were produced in the simulations of restarted jets made by Clarke & Burns (1991). On the other hand, we do not detect any feature in the surrounding outer lobes resembling the bow shock predicted in their simulations.

The forward advance speed of the inner lobes is expected to be higher than that in powerful sources in which beams encounter relatively denser IGM or inter-stellar medium (Clarke & Burns, 1991). The exceptionally high axial ratio of the inner double as compared to sources of similar size suggest an unusually high axial advance speed for the inner double. In addition, the parallel B-field configuration seen in the cocoon can be representing the natural outcome of anisotropic expansion of a tangled field (Leahy, 1991). As discussed in the section 3.2, the greater expansion losses could be the cause for the relatively low luminosity of the inner double as compared to edge-brightened sources that have similar sizes. The axial expansion of the cocoon plasma, due to forward momentum of the post-hotspot material, will have an effect on the spectral index distribution in the case of a curved electron energy spectrum and may be a contributing factor for the spectral steepening seen away from the ends. Ageing of the synchrotron plasma after it leaves the hotspot is commonly held as the main cause for the gradual steepening of the spectral index towards the core; however, the inner double has been inferred to have an age $`<5\times 10^6`$ yr and significant spectral steepening is not expected in this time.

A few rare examples of radio galaxies, such as the GRG 4C39.04, do have constant width and high axial ratio lobes similar to that in the inner double. Constant width cocoons in these sources have been attributed to static pressure balance (as suggested for 4C39.04 by Hine (1979)) or to ram pressure balance in the transverse direction against a falling external density medium (as suggested for the GRG 8C 0821+695 by Lacy et al. (1993)). The inner double in PKS B1545$``$321 is developing within the outer relic lobes that have displaced most of the intergalactic thermal material and the uniformity in the brightness of the outer lobes in the vicinity of the inner double implies that here the synchrotron plasma, including any thermal entrainment, is uniform. Therefore, ram pressure in a falling external density is unlikely to be the cause for the constant width of the inner double.

The inner lobes as well as their environment — the relic outer lobes — are both synchrotron plasma and, unless entrainment is significant or there are departures from minimum energy conditions, differences in surface brightness reflect differences in internal pressures. If we assume minimum energy conditions, the short trails behind the two ends of the inner double are 10 times over-pressured with respect to the surrounding outer lobe plasma. Regions of lower surface brightness farther from the ends and towards the core are also over-pressured, but by smaller factors. The limb-brightening in total intensity and fractional polarization, together with the parallel B-fields along the boundaries of the inner lobes, support the suggestion that the inner lobes are over-pressured and not statically pressure confined. In this context, the constancy of the width of the inner lobe suggests that either the lateral expansion speed (which results in a ram pressure confinement of the inner lobes) is much smaller than the forward advance speed of the ends of the inner lobes, or that the inner lobes are confined by other mechanisms (e.g. magnetic confinement).

On both sides, the inner double is observed to gradually bend over its entire length. The bending is reflection symmetric about the core. The observations imply that the jet is bent and that it follows a curved path. The cocoon/sheath follows the jet along its curved path forming a trail along the bent jet. Sharp bends and wiggles that are reflection symmetric might be caused by accelerations experienced by the host as a result of interactions with close companions (Begelman et al., 1984); however, the observed bending in the inner double is gradual and all along the length suggesting that the bending is not due to any momentary interaction. Such gradual reflection symmetric bends are more likely to be caused by relative motions of the host galaxy and the surrounding medium; however, it is unlikely that any relative motion between the host galaxy and the IGM will affect the new beams that are shielded from the IGM by the synchrotron plasma of the outer lobes. The jet probably deviates from a straight path because there is a continuous bending arising from an interaction at the ends of the beams with the surrounding cocoon material. Large scale density or pressure gradients in the surrounding outer relic lobes with a component perpendicular to the radio axis could cause bending of both jets towards a common direction. In such a case, the lateral bending force would have to result in a velocity component, transverse to the radio axis, that is about 4% of the forward velocity. The immediate environment of the jets is the synchrotron plasma in the backflowing outer lobe and here we do not observe increased emissivity (and synchrotron pressure) on the convex side of the bend. Neither do we observe any gradients in RM transverse to the radio axis and in the vicinity of the inner lobes. Although there is evidence for a transverse gradient in depolarization (see section 2.1) it is in the opposite sense to that required to account for the bend.

The inner and outer lobes are collinear implying that the ejection axis has not changed in the restarting. Unless the channels in which the beams feeding the outer lobes closed, the restarted beams may be expected to follow the old paths and, if the past beams followed curved trajectories just before they stopped we may expect the new beams to follow the same curved trajectories. The observation that the trajectories of the new beams are towards emission peaks at the ends of N1 and S1 supports such a scenario.

## 4 A comparison with restarting inner doubles proposed previously

Although several cases of radio galaxies with evidence for recurrence have been recognized, detailed observations of the inner double structures exist in the literature for only a few: J0116$``$473 (Saripalli, Subrahmanyan & Udaya Shankar, 2002), 3C219 (Clarke et al., 1992), 3C288 (Bridle et al., 1989) and 3C424 (Black et al., 1992). 3C219 and 3C424 have a prominent stunted jet only on one side. Inner doubles that represent a restarting phase may be recognized by two main properties: a higher surface brightness and a circumferential B-field configuration at their ends. The inner double in PKS B1545$``$321 displays both of these properties most clearly. This is also the case for the inner double in J0116$``$473. In all examples of restarting inner doubles observed to date the inner double is very narrow and although there is a brightening at the ends (weak hotspot) there are no lobes of the kind observed in normal edge brightened radio sources. In 3C424, J0116$``$473 and PKS B1545$``$321 the cocoon is recognized by a trail of emission behind the hotspot and this trail has a falling surface brightness towards the core. These trails are observed to have sharp edges indicating that we might be observing a contact discontinuity between the new cocoon and the relic cocoon. The new cocoons are also observed to have projected magnetic fields that are parallel to the edges: this is further evidence suggesting that the material spewn out in the new phase is confined by the relic cocoon environment and that the inner doubles might not have extensive cocoons beyond what is observed. Our observations suggest a constant width for the cocoon of the inner double in PKS B1545$``$321. It is interesting that in the re-started source 3C219 as well there is evidence for a 3–4 times wider cocoon of constant width surrounding the jet.

## 5 Summary

We have presented observations of the giant radio galaxy PKS B1545$``$321 that is a spectacular example of a source undergoing a renewal of nuclear activity. The new activity is manifest as twin, narrow, edge brightened radio structures that are symmetric about a radio core and fully embedded within more extended and diffuse outer lobes. The inner double structure has an exceptionally large axial ratio. It is suggested that the high axial ratio and absence of wide lobes are a result of the evolution in a synchrotron plasma environment. The unusual development is also expected to result in an unusually high forward advance for the ends of the new beams and this is probably the cause for the low observed radio luminosity for the inner double. Improved imaging of the inner lobes with the VLA are underway and these will be presented along with a model for the evolution of the inner double in a later paper.

The relic outer lobes in this source have sharp edges and an axial ratio similar to the typical values for powerful radio galaxies. These outer lobes are also characterized by a close correspondence between the total intensity structures and magnetic field all along the large scale structure. The dynamically evolving state of the outer lobes is interpreted as implying that the beams to the outer lobes switched off relatively recently and that the restarting has occured on a timescale small as compared to the dynamical timescale of the outer lobes.

The Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) is part of the Australia Telescope, which is funded by the Commonwealth of Australia for operation as a National Facility managed by CSIRO. This research has made use of data obtained through the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center Online Service, provided by the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. We also acknowledge the use of SuperCOSMOS, an advanced photographic plate digitizing machine at the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh, in obtaining the digitized image of PKS B1545$``$321 presented in the paper.