COMP2CAT: hunting compact double radio sources in the local Universe

Abstract

We present a catalog of compact double radio galaxies (hereafter COMP2CAT) listing 43 edge-brightened radio sources whose projected linear size does not exceed 60 kpc, the typical size of their host galaxies. This is the fifth in a series of radio source catalogs recently created, namely: FRICAT, FRIICAT, FR0CAT, and WATCAT, each of which focuses on a different class of radio galaxies. The main aim of our analysis is to attain a better understanding of sources with intermediate morphologies between FR IIs and FR 0s. COMP2CAT sources were selected from an existing catalog of radio sources based on NVSS, FIRST and SDSS observations because they have (i) edge-brightened morphologies typical of FR IIs, (ii) redshifts z <  0.15, and (iii) projected linear sizes smaller than 60 kpc. With radio luminosities at 1.4 GHz 1038 ≲ L1.4 ≲ 1041 erg s−1, COMP2CAT sources appear as the low radio luminosity tail of FR IIs. However, their host galaxies are indistinguishable from those of large-scale radio sources: they are luminous (−21 ≳ Mr ≳ −24), red, early-type galaxies with black hole masses in the range 107.5 ≲ MBH ≲ 109.5 M⊙. Moreover, all but one of the COMP2CAT sources are optically classifiable as low-excitation radio galaxies, in agreement with being the low radio luminosity tail of FR Is and FR IIs. This catalog of compact double sources, which is ∼47% complete at z <  0.15, can potentially be used to clarify the role of compact double sources in the general evolutionary scheme of radio galaxies.

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