Discovery of giant 'radio arcs' in cluster Abell 3376 : evidence for shock accleration in a violent cluster merger?

Abstract

New multi-wavelength (radio, optical & X-rays) observational evidences are presented which show that the nearby (z = 0.046), rich cluster of galaxies Abell 3376 is experiencing a major event of binary subcluster merger. The key evidence is the discovery of a pair of large, optically unidentified diffuse radio sources (‘arcs’), symmetrically located about 2.6 h−1 50 Mpc apart at the opposite ends of the hot intra-cluster gas mapped by ROSAT in X-rays. It is argued that the gas-dynamical shock-waves, which occur naturally during cluster formation, are accelerating charged particles (cosmic rays) to relativis- tic energies, leading to synchrotron emission from the megaparsec scale radio arcs. If this is so, cluster Abell 3376 would also be a potential source capa- ble of accelerating cosmic ray particles upto ultra-high energies (UHECR) of Emax ∼ 1018−19 eV. Thus this cluster is an excellent test-bed for understand- ing the physics of merger shocks and origin of enigmatic UHECR particles in structure formation process. Hence, Abell 3376 provides unique oppurtu- nities for further multi-wavelength observations with ground and space-borne observatories