TIFR GMRT Sky Survey Research Articles

Strange and Odd Morphology Extragalactic Radio Sources (STROMERSs): A Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters (FIRST) Look at the Strange and Odd Radio Sources

We report the identification of an extremely rare and peculiar set of irregular radio sources, termed “STROMERSs” (STRange and Odd Morphology Extragalactic Radio Sources).ingThe irregular radio sources with very anomalous morphologies that make them exceptionally different from all the known classes and subclasses of irregular radio sources are detected as STROMERSs. A thorough search for this class of sources from the Very Large Array (VLA) Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters (FIRST) gave a total of nine such candidates. We checked the corresponding morphology of the identified sources in other frequency surveys. We found a detectable radio emission for all of the nine sources in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) at 1.4 GHz and in the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS) at 150 MHz, while the same was found for only three sources in the Westerbork Northern Sky Survey (WENSS) at 625 MHz. However, the strange morphology was not found in all of those other survey images. We also characterized the sources with their corresponding physical parameters like optical counterpart, size, spectral index, and radio luminosity. ingThe estimated spectral values of the sources indicated that the STROMERSs were most likely radio galaxies. The presence of any nearby galaxy clusters for the STROMERSs was also checked.

Wavelet based tone mapping (TM) enhancement to a detection system for faint and compact sources in HDR and large FOV radio scenes

For high dynamic range (HDR) and large field-of-view (FOV) radio scenes, detection of faint sources with compact support and tiny sizes in comparatively extensive celestial areas is a challenging task. In the era of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), it will be of particular concern, and data-targeted systematic methods are put on the agenda. This paper proposes a systematic method to solve this problem. From the perspective of image processing, a multiscale image contrast enhancement (ICE) is proposed to normalize the HDR. Source representation is realized by a starlet framework, where a two-step tone mapping (TM) including an arc-tangent function compression and an aggregated gain function enhancement are embedded. According to two bionic principles, the gain function is designed to highlight faint sources, remove artifacts (e.g., halos), and avoid feature distortions. For source detection, an integration method is proposed for projections between the celestial and the planar coordinate systems. It serves for coordinate transform and source location. A detection indicator system is built, and elaborate discrimination principles are drawn up. In the experiments, this method is dedicated to the dataset of the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS) alternative data release 1 (ADR1) to facilitate the scientific goal of discovering new sources. Results show its advantages over the state of the art methods in visual inspections and detection ratios, and preliminarily prove that it has prospects for future HDR and large FOV radio data.

Limits on long-time-scale radio transients at 150 MHz using the TGSS ADR1 and LoTSS DR2 catalogues

ABSTRACT We present a search for transient radio sources on time-scales of 2–9 yr at 150 MHz. This search is conducted by comparing the first Alternative Data Release of the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS ADR1) and the second data release of the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS DR2). The overlapping survey area covers 5570 $\rm {deg}^2$ on the sky, or 14 per cent of the total sky. We introduce a method to compare the source catalogues that involves a pair match of sources, a flux density cutoff to meet the survey completeness limit and a newly developed compactness criterion. This method is used to identify both transient candidates in the TGSS source catalogue that have no counterpart in the LoTSS catalogue and transient candidates in LoTSS without a counterpart in TGSS. We find that imaging artefacts and uncertainties and variations in the flux density scales complicate the transient search. Our method to search for transients by comparing two different surveys, while taking into account imaging artefacts around bright sources and misaligned flux scales between surveys, is universally applicable to future radio transient searches. No transient sources were identified, but we are able to place an upper limit on the transient surface density of <5.4 × 10−4 deg−2 at 150 MHz for compact sources with an integrated flux density over 100 mJy. Here we define a transient as a compact source with flux density greater than 100 mJy that appears in the catalogue of one survey without a counterpart in the other survey.

Stringent constraint on the radio signal from dark matter annihilation in dwarf spheroidal galaxies using the TGSS

ABSTRACT Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are considered to be one of the favoured dark matter candidates. Searching for any detectable signal due to the annihilation and decay of WIMPs over the entire electromagnetic spectrum has become a matter of interest for the last few decades. WIMP annihilation to Standard Model particles gives rise to a possibility of detection of this signal at low radio frequencies via synchrotron radiation. Dwarf spheroidal (dSphs) galaxies are expected to contain a huge amount of dark matter which makes them promising targets to search for such large scale diffuse radio emission. In this work, we present a stacking analysis of 23 dSph galaxies observed at low frequency (147.5 MHz) as part of the TIFR-GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS). The non-detection of any signal from these stacking exercises put very tight constraints on the dark matter parameters. The best limit comes from the novel method of stacking after scaling the radio images of the individual dSph galaxy fields after scaling them by the respective half-light radius. The constraint on the thermally averaged cross-section is below the thermal relic cross-section value over a range of WIMP mass for reasonable choices of relevant astrophysical parameters. Such analysis, using future deeper observation of individual targets as well as stacking, can potentially reveal more about the WIMP dark matter properties.

MRG: The Miscellaneous Radio Galaxies from the FIRST Survey

Miscellaneous Radio Galaxies (MRGs) are very rare kind of radio galaxies that exhibit unusual and different jet alignment and orientation from a typical radio galaxy. The peculiar and unique morphology of this type of radio source makes them a special case of study. In this paper, we report the identification of fifteen MRGs from VLA Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters (VLA FIRST) Survey. The MRGs are identified manually by visual inspection of the FIRST database (December, 2017). The individual radio morphology of each sources are cross-checked at different frequencies from other surveys like TIFR GMRT Sky Survey at 150 MHz and Westerbork Northern Sky Survey at 325 MHz. We also identify the associated optical counterparts from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), where available. The different physical parameters like spectral index and radio luminosity of these MRGs are also estimated. An overview on the origin of these unique sources are also drawn.

All-sky angular power spectrum – I. Estimating brightness temperature fluctuations using the 150-MHz TGSS survey

ABSTRACT Measurements of the Galactic synchrotron emission are important for the 21-cm studies of the epoch of reionization. The study of synchrotron emission is also useful for quantifying the fluctuations in the magnetic field and the cosmic-ray electron density of the turbulent interstellar medium (ISM) of our Galaxy. Here, we present the all-sky angular power spectrum (Cℓ) measurements of the diffuse synchrotron emission obtained using the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS) at 150 MHz. We estimate Cℓ using visibility data both before and after subtracting the modelled point sources. The amplitude of the measured Cℓ decreases significantly after subtracting the point sources, and it is slightly higher in the Galactic plane for the residual data. The residual Cℓ is most likely to be dominated by the Galactic synchrotron emission. The amplitude of the residual Cℓ decreases significantly away from the Galactic plane. We find that the measurements are quite symmetric in the Northern and Southern hemispheres except in the latitude range 15°−30°, which is the transition region from the disc-dominated to the diffuse halo-dominated region. A comparison between this interferometric measurement and the scaled version of the Haslam rms map at 150 MHz shows that the correlation coefficient (r) is greater than 0.5 for most of the latitude ranges considered here. This indicates that the TGSS is quite sensitive to the diffuse Galactic synchrotron radiation.

Revived fossil plasma sources in galaxy clusters

It is well established that particle acceleration by shocks and turbulence in the intra-cluster medium can produce cluster-scale synchrotron emitting sources. However, the detailed physics of these particle acceleration processes is still not well understood. One of the main open questions is the role of fossil relativistic electrons that have been deposited in the intracluster medium (ICM) by radio galaxies. These synchrotron-emitting electrons are very difficult to study as their radiative lifetime is only tens of Myr at gigahertz frequencies, and they are therefore a relatively unexplored population. Despite the typical steep radio spectrum due to synchrotron losses, these fossil electrons are barely visible even at radio frequencies well below the gigahertz level. However, when a pocket of fossil radio plasma is compressed, it boosts the visibility at sub-gigahertz frequencies, creating what are known as radio phoenices. This compression can be the result of bulk motion and shocks in the ICM due to merger activity. In this paper we demonstrate the discovery potential of low-frequency radio sky surveys to find and study revived fossil plasma sources in galaxy clusters. We used the 150 MHz TIFR GMRT Sky Survey and the 1.4 GHz NVSS sky survey to identify candidate radio phoenices. A subset of three candidates was studied in detail using deep multi-band radio observations (LOFAR and GMRT), X-ray obserations (Chandra or XMM-Newton), and archival optical observations. Two of the three sources are new discoveries. Using these observations, we identified common observational properties (radio morphology, ultra-steep spectrum, X-ray luminosity, dynamical state) that will enable us to identify this class of sources more easily, and will help us to understand the physical origin of these sources.

The Galaxy Power Spectrum from TGSS ADR1 and the Effect of Flux Calibration Systematics

Abstract We explore the large to moderate scale anisotropy in distant radio sources using the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS) ADR1 catalog. We use different measures, i.e., number counts, sky brightness, and flux per source, for this study. In agreement with earlier results, we report a significant excess of clustering signal above the angular scale of roughly 10° (i.e., l ⪅ 20–30). We find that some survey areas have a systematically low/high flux and argue this may be the cause of the observed signal of excess power at low multipoles. With mocks we demonstrate the effect of such large-scale flux systematics and recover a TGSS-like excess clustering signal by assuming 20% flux uncertainties over ∼10° × 10° sized patches. We argue that that TGSS at this stage, i.e., TGSS ADR1, is not suitable for large-scale clustering measurements. We find that the measure, flux per source, shows evidence of isotropy for all multipoles l > 2 despite the presence of systematics in the data.

The low-frequency properties of FR 0 radio galaxies

Using the alternative data release of the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS), we studied the low-frequency properties of FR 0 radio galaxies, the large population of compact radio sources associated with red massive early-type galaxies revealed by surveys at 1.4 GHz. We considered TGSS observations from FR0CAT, a sample formed by 104 FR 0s at z < 0.05: all but one of them are covered by the TGSS, and 43 of them are detected above a 5σ limit of 17.5 mJy. No extended emission has been detected around the FR 0s, corresponding to a luminosity limit of ≲4 × 1023 W Hz−1 over an area of 100 kpc × 100 kpc. All but eight FR 0s have a flat or inverted spectral shape (α < 0.5) between 150 MHz and 1.4 GHz: this spectral behavior confirms the general paucity of optically thin extended emission within the TGSS beam, as is expected for their compact 1.4 GHz morphology. Data at 5 GHz were used to build their radio spectra, which are also generally flat at higher frequencies. By focusing on a sub-sample of FR 0s with flux density > 50 mJy at 1.4 GHz, we found that ∼75% of them have a convex spectrum, but with a smaller curvature than the more powerful gigahertz peaked-spectrum sources (GPS). The typical FR 0s radio spectrum is better described by a gradual steepening toward high frequencies, rather than to a transition from an optically-thick to an optically-thin regime, possibly observed in only ∼15% of the sample.

Extended Catalog of Winged or X-shaped Radio Sources from the FIRST Survey

Abstract We present a catalog of 290 “winged” or X-shaped radio galaxies (XRGs) extracted from the latest (2014 December 17) data release of the “Very Large Array Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty centimeter.” We have combined these radio images with their counterparts in the TIFR GMRT sky survey at 150 MHz, in an attempt to identify any low surface brightness radio emission present in these sources. This has enabled us to assemble a sample of 106 “strong” XRG candidates and 184 “probable” XRG candidates whose XRG designation needs to be verified by further observations. The present sample of 290 XRG candidates is almost twice as large as the number of XRGs currently known. Twenty-five of our 290 XRG candidates (9 “strong” and 16 “probable”) are identified as quasars. Double-peaked narrow emission lines are seen in the optical spectra of three of the XRG candidates (two “strong” and one “probable”). Nearly 90% of the sample is located in the FR II domain of the Owen–Ledlow diagram. A few of the strong XRG candidates have a rather flat radio spectrum (spectral index α flatter than −0.3) between 150 MHz and 1.4 GHz, or between 1.4 and 5 GHz. Since this is not expected for lobe-dominated extragalactic radio sources (like nearly all known XRGs), these sources are particularly suited for follow-up radio imaging and near-simultaneous measurement of the radio spectrum.

Radio spectral index from NVSS and TGSS

I extract the radio spectral index, α, from 541 195 common sources observed in the 150MHz TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS) and the 1.4GHz NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). This large common source catalog covers about 80% of the sky. The flux density limits in these surveys are such that the observed galaxies are presumably hosts of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). I confirm the steepening of α with increasing flux density for this large sample and provide a parametric fit between α and flux density. Next, I divide the data into low flux (LF) and high flux (HF) density samples with roughly equal numbers of galaxies. The LF sample contains all galaxies below 100mJy TGSS and 20mJy NVSS flux density and the HF sample is all galaxies above 100mJy TGSS and 20mJy NVSS. I observe an increase in α with source size (TGSS measured), saturating for large sizes to 0.89 ± 0.22 and 0.76 ± 0.21 for the LF and HF sources, respectively. I discuss the observed results and possible physical mechanisms to explain observed α dependence with source size for LF and HF samples.

Clustering properties of TGSS radio sources

We investigate the clustering properties of radio sources in the Alternative Data Release 1 of the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS), focusing on large angular scales, where previous analyses have detected a large clustering signal. After appropriate data selection, the TGSS sample we use contains ∼110 000 sources selected at 150 MHz over ∼70% of the sky. The survey footprint is largely superimposed on that of the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) with the majority of TGSS sources having a counterpart in the NVSS sample. These characteristics make TGSS suitable for large-scale clustering analyses and facilitate the comparison with the results of previous studies. In this analysis we focus on the angular power spectrum, although the angular correlation function is also computed to quantify the contribution of multiple-component radio sources. We find that on large angular scales, corresponding to multipoles 2 ≤ ℓ ≤ 30, the amplitude of the TGSS angular power spectrum is significantly larger than that of the NVSS. We do not identify any observational systematic effects that may explain this mismatch. We have produced a number of physically motivated models for the TGSS angular power spectrum and found that all of them fail to match observations, even when taking into account observational and theoretical uncertainties. The same models provide a good fit to the angular spectrum of the NVSS sources. These results confirm the anomalous nature of the TGSS large-scale power, which has no obvious physical origin and seems to indicate that unknown systematic errors are present in the TGSS dataset.

Multiwavelength Observations of a New Redback Millisecond Pulsar Candidate: 3FGL J0954.8–3948

Abstract We present a multiwavelength study of the unassociated Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) source, 3FGL J0954.8−3948, which is likely the γ-ray counterpart of a 9.3 hr binary in the field. With more than 9 years of Pass 8 LAT data, we updated the γ-ray spectral properties and the LAT localization of the γ-ray source. While the binary lies outside the cataloged 95% error ellipse, the optimized LAT ellipse is 0.°1 closer and encloses the binary. The system is likely spectrally hard in X-rays (photon index ) with orbital modulations detected in optical, ultraviolet, and possibly X-rays. A steep spectrum radio counterpart (spectral index α ≈ −1.6) is also found in the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey, implying that it is a pulsar system. We obtained a series of SOAR and Gemini spectroscopic observations in 2017/2018, which show a low-mass secondary orbiting in a close circular orbit with K 2 = 272 ± 4 km s−1 under strong irradiation by the primary compact object. All the observations as well as the modeling of the X/γ-ray high-energy emission suggest that 3FGL J0954.8−3948 is a redback millisecond pulsar in a rotation-powered state.

Constraints on the Composition, Magnetization, and Radiative Efficiency in the Jets of Blazars

Abstract The composition and energy dissipation in jets are two of the fundamental questions of jet physics that are not fully understood. In this paper, we attempt to constrain the composition, magnetization, and radiative efficiency for blazars with the recently released low-frequency radio catalog of the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey at 150 MHz. The jet power estimated from the low-frequency radio emission is much lower than that derived from spectral energy distribution fitting assuming one proton per electron. Assuming the jet power estimated from low-frequency radio emission is physical, the fraction of electron/positron pairs can be constrained with n pairs/n p ∼ 10. By comparing the power carried by the magnetic field and radiation with the jet power estimated from the low-frequency radio emission, we find both the relatively high magnetization parameter of σ ∼ 0.5 and the radiative efficiency of η ∼ 0.4 in the dissipation region of blazars. These results suggest that magnetic reconnection processes may play an important role in the energy dissipation of blazars. We also explore the connection between these three parameters (n pairs/n p, σ, and η) and the black hole mass, disk luminosity, and Eddington ratio. No significant correlation is found, except that σ shows a possible correlation with disk luminosity.

A radio spectral index map and catalogue at 147–1400 MHz covering 80 per cent of the sky

Abstract The radio spectral index is a powerful probe for classifying cosmic radio sources and understanding the origin of the radio emission. Combining data at 147 MHz and 1.4 GHz from the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS) and the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS), we produced a large-area radio spectral index map of ∼80 per cent of the sky (Dec. > − 40 deg), as well as a radio spectral index catalogue containing 1396 515 sources, of which 503 647 are not upper or lower limits. Almost every TGSS source has a detected counterpart, while this is true only for 36 per cent of NVSS sources. We released both the map and the catalogue to the astronomical community. The catalogue is analysed to discover systematic behaviours in the cosmic radio population. We find a differential spectral behaviour between faint and bright sources as well as between compact and extended sources. These trends are explained in terms of radio galaxy evolution. We also confirm earlier reports of an excess of steep-spectrum sources along the galactic plane. This corresponds to 86 compact and steep-spectrum source in excess compared to expectations. The properties of this excess are consistent with normal non-recycled pulsars, which may have been missed by pulsation searches due to larger than average scattering along the line of sight.

The angular power spectrum measurement of the Galactic synchrotron emission using the TGSS survey

AbstractCharacterizing the diffuse Galactic synchrotron emission (DGSE) at arcminute angular scales is needed to remove this foregrounds in cosmological 21-cm measurements. Here, we present the angular power spectrum (Cℓ) measurement of the diffuse Galactic synchrotron emission using two fields observed by the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS). We apply 2D Tapered Gridded Estimator (TGE) to estimate the Cℓ from the visibilities. We find that the residual data after subtracting the point sources is likely dominated by the diffuse Galactic synchrotron radiation across the angular multipole range 240 ≤ ℓ ≲ 500. We fit a power law to the measured Cℓ over this ℓ range. We find that the slopes in both fields are consistent with earlier measurements. For the second field, however, we interpret the measured Cℓ as an upper limit for the DGSE as there is an indication of a significant residual point source contribution.

LOFAR MSSS: The scaling relation between AGN cavity power and radio luminosity at low radio frequencies

We present a new analysis of the widely used relation between cavity power and radio luminosity in clusters of galaxies with evidence for strong AGN feedback. We study the correlation at low radio frequencies using two new surveys - the First Alternative Data Release of the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS ADR1) at 148 MHz and LOFAR's first all-sky survey, the Multifrequency Snapshot Sky Survey (MSSS) at 140 MHz. We find a scaling relation $P_{\rm cav} \propto L_{148}^{\beta}$, with a logarithmic slope of $\beta = 0.51 \pm 0.14$, which is in good agreement with previous results based on data at 327 MHz. The large scatter present in this correlation confirms the conclusion reached at higher frequencies that the total radio luminosity at a single frequency is a poor predictor of the total jet power. We show that including measurements at 148 MHz alone is insufficient to reliably compute the bolometric radio luminosity and reduce the scatter in the correlation. For a subset of four well-resolved sources, we examine the detected extended structures at low frequencies and compare with the morphology known from higher frequency images and Chandra X-ray maps. In Perseus we discuss details in the structures of the radio mini-halo, while in the 2A 0335+096 cluster we observe new diffuse emission associated with multiple X-ray cavities and likely originating from past activity. For A2199 and MS 0735.6+7421, we confirm that the observed low-frequency radio lobes are confined to the extents known from higher frequencies. This new low-frequency analysis highlights the fact that existing cavity power to radio luminosity relations are based on a relatively narrow range of AGN outburst ages. We discuss how the correlation could be extended using low frequency data from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) in combination with future, complementary deeper X-ray observations.

The angular power spectrum measurement of the Galactic synchrotron emission in two fields of the TGSS survey

Abstract Characterizing the diffuse Galactic synchrotron emission at arcminute angular scales is needed to reliably remove foregrounds in cosmological 21-cm measurements. The study of this emission is also interesting in its own right. Here, we quantify the fluctuations of the diffuse Galactic synchrotron emission using visibility data for two of the fields observed by the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey. We have used the 2D Tapered Gridded Estimator to estimate the angular power spectrum (Cℓ) from the visibilities. We find that the sky signal, after subtracting the point sources, is likely dominated by the diffuse Galactic synchrotron radiation across the angular multipole range 240 ≤ ℓ ≲ 500. We present a power-law fit, $C_{\ell }=A\times \big (\frac{1000}{l}\big )^{\beta }$, to the measured Cℓ over this ℓ range. We find that (A, β) have values (356 ± 109 mK2, 2.8 ± 0.3) and (54 ± 26 mK2, 2.2 ± 0.4) in the two fields. For the second field, however, there is indication of a significant residual point source contribution and for this field we interpret the measured Cℓ as an upper limit for the diffuse Galactic synchrotron emission. While in both fields the slopes are consistent with earlier measurements, the second field appears to have an amplitude that is considerably smaller compared to similar measurements in other parts of the sky.

A search for long-time-scale, low-frequency radio transients

We present a search for transient and highly variable sources at low radio frequencies (150-200 MHz) that explores long timescales of 1-3 years. We conducted this search by comparing the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey Alternative Data Release 1 (TGSS ADR1) and the GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky Murchison Widefield Array (GLEAM) survey catalogues. To account for the different completeness thresholds in the individual surveys, we searched for compact GLEAM sources above a flux density limit of 100 mJy that were not present in the TGSS ADR1; and also for compact TGSS ADR1 sources above a flux density limit of 200 mJy that had no counterpart in GLEAM. From a total sample of 234 333 GLEAM sources and 275 612 TGSS ADR1 sources in the overlap region between the two surveys, there were 99658 GLEAM sources and 38 978 TGSS ADR sources that passed our flux density cutoff and compactness criteria. Analysis of these sources resulted in three candidate transient sources. Further analysis ruled out two candidates as imaging artefacts. We analyse the third candidate and show it is likely to be real, with a flux density of 182 +/- 26 mJy at 147.5 MHz. This gives a transient surface density of rho = (6.2 +/- 6) x 10-5 deg-2 . We present initial follow-up observations and discuss possible causes for this candidate. The small number of spurious sources from this search demonstrates the high reliability of these two new low-frequency radio catalogues.

Radio continuum emission and H i gas accretion in the NGC 5903/5898 compact group of early-type galaxies

We discuss the nature of the multi-component radio continuum and HI emission associated with the nearby galaxy group comprised of two dominant ellipticals, NGC 5898 and NGC 5903, and a dwarf lenticular ESO514-G003. Striking new details of radio emission are unveiled from the 2nd Data Release of the ongoing TIFR.GMRT.SKY.SURVEY (TGSS) which provides images with a resolution of ~ 24 arcsec x 18 arcsec and a typical rms noise of 5 mJy at 150 MHz. Previous radio observations of this compact triplet of galaxies include images at higher frequencies of the radio continuum as well as HI emission, the latter showing huge HI trails originating from the vicinity of NGC 5903 where HI is in a kinematically disturbed state. The TGSS 150 MHz image has revealed a large asymmetric radio halo around NGC 5903 and also established that the dwarf SO galaxy ESO514-G003 is the host to a previously known bright double radio source. The radio emission from NGC 5903 is found to have a very steep radio spectrum ({\alpha} ~ -1.5) and to envelope a network of radio continuum filaments bearing a spatial relationship to the HI trails. Another noteworthy aspect of this triplet of early-type galaxies highlighted by the present study is that both its radio loud members, namely NGC 5903 and ESO514-G003, are also the only galaxies that are seen to be connected to an HI filament. This correlation is consistent with the premise that cold gas accretion is of prime importance for triggering powerful jet activity in the nuclei of early-type galaxies.