DISCOVERY OF A GIANT RADIO HALO IN A NEWPLANCKGALAXY CLUSTER PLCKG171.9–40.7

Abstract

We report the discovery of a giant radio halo in a new, hot, X-ray luminous galaxy cluster recently found by Planck, PLCKG171.9-40.7. The radio halo was found using Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope observations at 235 MHz and 610 MHz, and in the 1.4 GHz data from a NRAO Very Large Array Sky Survey pointing that we have reanalyzed. The diffuse radio emission is coincident with the cluster X-ray emission, has an extent of ~1 Mpc and a radio power of ~5x 10^24 W/Hz at 1.4 GHz. Its integrated radio spectrum has a slope of alpha~1.8 between 235 MHz and 1.4 GHz, steeper than that of a typical giant halo. The analysis of the archival XMM-Newton X-ray data shows that the cluster is hot (~10 keV) and disturbed, consistent with X-ray selected clusters hosting radio halos. This is the first giant radio halo discovered in one of the new clusters found by Planck.