FRIICAT: A FIRST catalog of FR II radio galaxies

Abstract

Aims. We built a catalog of 122 FR II radio galaxies, called FRIICAT, selected from a published sample obtained by combining observations from the NVSS, FIRST, and SDSS surveys. The catalog includes sources with redshift ≤ 0.15, an edge-brightened radio morphology, and those with at least one of the emission peaks located at radius r larger than 30 kpc from the center of the host.

Methods. The radio luminosity at 1.4 GHz of the FRIICAT sources covers the range L1.4 ~ 1039.5−1042.5erg s-1. The FRIICAT catalog has 90% of low and 10% of high excitation galaxies (LEGs and HEGs), respectively. The properties of these two classes are significantly different. The FRIICAT LEGs are mostly luminous (−20 ≳ Mr ≳ −24), red early-type galaxies with black hole masses in the range 108 ≲ MBH ≲ 109M⊙; they are essentially indistinguishable from the FR Is belonging to the FRICAT. The HEG FR IIs are associated with optically bluer and mid-IR redder hosts than the LEG FR IIs and to galaxies and black holes that are smaller, on average, by a factor ~2.

Results. FR IIs have a factor ~3 higher average radio luminosity than FR Is. Nonetheless, most (~ 90%) of the selected FR IIs have a radio power that is lower, by as much as a factor of ~100, than the transition value between FR Is and FR IIs found in the 3C sample. The correspondence between the morphological classification of FR I and FR II and the separation in radio power disappears when including sources selected at low radio flux thresholds, which is in line with previous results. In conclusion, a radio source produced by a low power jet can be edge brightened or edge darkened, and the outcome is not related to differences in the optical properties of the host galaxy.

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record

Altmetrics