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Context. The Shapley Supercluster (⟨ z ⟩≈0.048) contains several tens of gravitationally bound clusters and groups, making it an ideal subject for radio studies of cluster mergers. Aims. We used new high sensitivity radio observations to investigate the less energetic events of mass assembly in the Shapley Supercluster from supercluster down to galactic scales. Methods. We created total intensity images of the full region between A3558 and A3562, from ∼230 to ∼1650 MHz, using ASKAP, MeerKAT and the GMRT, with sensitivities ranging from ∼6 to ∼100 μJy beam −1 . We performed a detailed morphological and spectral study of the extended emission features, complemented with ESO-VST optical imaging and X-ray data from XMM-Newton . Results. We report the first GHz frequency detection of extremely low brightness intercluster diffuse emission on a ∼1 Mpc scale connecting a cluster and a group, namely: A3562 and the group SC 1329–313. It is morphologically similar to the X-ray emission in the region. We also found (1) a radio tail generated by ram pressure stripping in the galaxy SOS 61086 in SC 1329–313; (2) a head-tail radio galaxy, whose tail is broken and culminates in a misaligned bar; (3) ultrasteep diffuse emission at the centre of A3558. Finally (4), we confirm the ultra-steep spectrum nature of the radio halo in A3562. Conclusions. Our study strongly supports the scenario of a flyby of SC 1329–313 north of A3562 into the supercluster core. This event perturbed the centre of A3562, leaving traces of this interaction in the form of turbulence between A3562 and SC 1329–313, at the origin of the radio bridge and eventually affecting the evolution of individual supercluster galaxies by triggering ram pressure stripping. Our work shows that minor mergers can be spectacular and have the potential to generate diffuse radio emission that carries important information on the formation of large-scale structures in the Universe. 

Radio relics are diffuse, extended synchrotron sources that originate from shock fronts generated during cluster mergers. The massive merging galaxy cluster MACS J0717.5+3745 hosts one of the more complex relics known to date. We present upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope band 3 (300−500 MHz) and band 4 (550−850 MHz) observations. These new observations, combined with published VLA and the new LOFAR HBA data, allow us to carry out a detailed, high spatial resolution spectral analysis of the relic over a broad range of frequencies. The integrated spectrum of the relic closely follows a power law between 144 MHz and 5.5 GHz with a mean spectral slope α  = −1.16 ± 0.03. Despite the complex morphology of this relic, its subregions and the other isolated filaments also follow power-law behaviors, and show similar spectral slopes. Assuming diffusive shock acceleration, we estimated a dominant Mach number of ∼3.7 for the shocks that make up the relic. A comparison with recent numerical simulations suggests that in the case of radio relics, the slopes of the integrated radio spectra are determined by the Mach number of the accelerating shock, with α nearly constant, namely between −1.13 and −1.17, for Mach numbers 3.5 − 4.0. The spectral shapes inferred from spatially resolved regions show curvature, we speculate that the relic is inclined along the line of sight. The locus of points in the simulated color-color plots changes significantly with the relic viewing angle. We conclude that projection effects and inhomogeneities in the shock Mach number dominate the observed spectral properties of the relic in this complex system. Based on the new observations we raise the possibility that the relic and a narrow-angle-tailed radio galaxy are two different structures projected along the same line of sight. 

We present the study of the internal dynamics of the intriguing galaxy cluster Abell 1703, a system hosting a probable giant radio halo whose dynamical status is still controversial. Our analysis is based on unpublished spectroscopic data acquired at the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo and data publicly available in the literature. We also use photometric data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We select 147 cluster members and compute the cluster redshift 〈z〉 ∼ 0.277 and the global line-of-sight velocity dispersion σv ∼ 1300 km s−1. We infer that Abell 1703 is a massive cluster: M200 ∼ 1–2 × 1015 M⊙. The results of our study disagree with the picture of an unimodal, relaxed cluster as suggested by previous studies based on the gravitational lensing analysis and support the view of a perturbed dynamics proposed by recent works based on Chandra X-ray data. The first strong evidence of a dynamically disturbed cluster comes from the peculiarity of the BCG velocity with respect to the first moment of the velocity distribution of member galaxies. Moreover, several statistical tests employed to study the cluster galaxies kinematics find significant evidence of substructure, being Abell 1703 composed by at least two or three subclumps probably caught after the core–core passage. In this observational scenario, the suspected existence of a radio halo in the centre of this cluster is not surprising and well agrees with the theoretical models describing diffuse radio sources in clusters.

 

The XXL Survey is the largest homogeneous survey carried out with XMM-Newton. Covering an area of 50 deg2, the survey contains several hundred galaxy clusters out to a redshift of ≈2, above an X-ray flux limit of ∼6 × 10−15 er g cm−2 s−1. The GAMA spectroscopic survey of ∼300 000 galaxies covers ≈286 deg2, down to an r-band magnitude of r < 19.8 mag. The region of overlap of these two surveys (covering 14.6 deg2) represents an ideal opportunity to study clusters selected via two independent selection criteria. Generating two independently selected samples of clusters, one drawn from XXL (spanning a redshift range 0.05 ≤ z ≤ 0.3) and another from GAMA (0.05 ≤ z ≤ 0.2), both spanning 0.2 ≲ M500 ≲ 5 × 1014 M⊙, we investigate the relationship between X-ray luminosity and velocity dispersion (LX − σv relation). Comparing the LX − σv relation between the X-ray selected and optically selected samples, when not accounting for the X-ray selection, we find that the scatter of the X-ray selected sample is 2.7 times higher than the optically selected sample (at the 3.7σ level). Accounting for the X-ray selection to model the LX − σv relation, we find that the difference in the scatter increases (with the X-ray selected sample having a scatter 3.4 times larger than the optically selected sample). Although the scatter of the optically selected sample is lower, we find 13 optically selected GAMA groups undetected in X-rays. Inspection of the difference in magnitude between the first and second brightest galaxies in the cluster, and a stacked X-ray image of these 13 groups, suggests that these are young systems still in the process of forming.