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We present LOw Frequency ARray observations of the Coma Cluster field at 144 MHz. The cluster hosts one of the most famous radio halos, a relic, and a low surface brightness bridge. We detect new features that allow us to make a step forward in the understanding of particle acceleration in clusters. The radio halo extends for more than 2 Mpc, which is the largest extent ever reported. To the northeast of the cluster, beyond the Coma virial radius, we discover an arc-like radio source that could trace particles accelerated by an accretion shock. To the west of the halo, coincident with a shock detected in the X-rays, we confirm the presence of a radio front, with different spectral properties with respect to the rest of the halo. We detect a radial steepening of the radio halo spectral index between 144 and 342 MHz, at ∼30′ from the cluster center, that may indicate a non-constant re-acceleration time throughout the volume. We also detect a mild steepening of the spectral index toward the cluster center. For the first time, a radial change in the slope of the radio–X-ray correlation is found, and we show that such a change could indicate an increasing fraction of cosmic-ray versus thermal energy density in the cluster outskirts. Finally, we investigate the origin of the emission between the relic and the source NGC 4789, and we argue that NGC 4789 could have crossed the shock originating the radio emission visible between its tail and the relic.

Galaxy clusters are the most massive gravitationally bound structures in the Universe.They grow by accreting smaller structures in a merging process that produces shocks and turbulence in the intracluster gas. We observed a ridge of radio emission connecting the merging galaxy clusters Abell 0399 and Abell 0401 with the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope network at 140 megahertz. This emission requires a population of relativistic electrons and a magnetic field located in a filament between the two galaxy clusters. We performed simulations to show that a volume-filling distribution of weak shocks may reaccelerate a preexisting population of relativistic particles, producing emission at radio wavelengths that illuminates the magnetic ridge.

Thin synchrotron-emitting filaments are increasingly seen in the intracluster medium (ICM). We present the first example of a direct interaction between a magnetic filament, a radio jet, and a dense ICM clump in the poor cluster A194. This enables the first exploration of the dynamics and possible histories of magnetic fields and cosmic rays in such filaments. Our observations are from the MeerKAT Galaxy Cluster Legacy Survey and the LOFAR Two-Meter Sky Survey. Prominent 220 kpc long filaments extend east of radio galaxy 3C40B, with very faint extensions to 300 kpc, and show signs of interaction with its northern jet. They curve around a bend in the jet and intersect the jet in Faraday depth space. The X-ray surface brightness drops across the filaments; this suggests that the relativistic particles and fields contribute significantly to the pressure balance and evacuate the thermal plasma in a ∼35 kpc cylinder. We explore whether the relativistic electrons could have streamed along the filaments from 3C40B, and present a plausible alternative whereby magnetized filaments are (a) generated by shear motions in the large-scale, post-merger ICM flow, (b) stretched by interactions with the jet and flows in the ICM, amplifying the embedded magnetic fields, and (c) perfused by re-energized relativistic electrons through betatron-type acceleration or diffusion of turbulently accelerated ICM cosmic-ray electrons. We use the Faraday depth measurements to reconstruct some of the 3D structures of the filameGnts and of 3C40A and B.

We present deep and high-fidelity images of the merging galaxy cluster A2256 at low frequencies using the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) and LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR). This cluster hosts one of the most prominent known relics with a remarkably spectacular network of filamentary substructures. The new uGMRT (300–850 MHz) and LOFAR (120–169 MHz) observations, combined with the archival Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA; 1–4 GHz) data, allowed us to carry out the first spatially resolved spectral analysis of the exceptional relic emission down to 6″ resolution over a broad range of frequencies. Our new sensitive radio images confirm the presence of complex filaments of magnetized relativistic plasma also at low frequencies. We find that the integrated spectrum of the relic is consistent with a single power law, without any sign of spectral steepening, at least below 3 GHz. Unlike previous claims, the relic shows an integrated spectral index of −1.07 ± 0.02 between 144 MHz and 3 GHz, which is consistent with the (quasi)stationary shock approximation. The spatially resolved spectral analysis suggests that the relic surface very likely traces the complex shock front, with a broad distribution of Mach numbers propagating through a turbulent and dynamically active intracluster medium. Our results show that the northern part of the relic is seen edge-on and the southern part close to face-on. We suggest that the complex filaments are regions where higher Mach numbers dominate the (re)acceleration of electrons that are responsible for the observed radio emission.

Pulsars are magnetized neutron stars which have provided us a great insight into the evolution of the neutron stars themselves. We here present the application of the existing LOFAR technology on Pulsar observation, since LOFAR observes the unexplored frequencies of 10-240 MHz. This paper summarizes the system design of LOFAR and shows how this can be used to observe the Pulsars, since recent studies have presented that pulsars observation is possible in the low frequency range.

Underwater target recognition is an important supporting technology for the development of marine resources, which is mainly limited by the purity of feature extraction and the universality of recognition schemes. The low-frequency analysis and recording (LOFAR) spectrum is one of the key features of the underwater target, which can be used for feature extraction. However, the complex underwater environment noise and the extremely low signal-to-noise ratio of the target signal lead to breakpoints in the LOFAR spectrum, which seriously hinders the underwater target recognition. To overcome this issue and to further improve the recognition performance, we adopted a deep-learning approach for underwater target recognition, and a novel LOFAR spectrum enhancement (LSE)-based underwater target-recognition scheme was proposed, which consists of preprocessing, offline training, and online testing. In preprocessing, we specifically design a LOFAR spectrum enhancement based on multi-step decision algorithm to recover the breakpoints in LOFAR spectrum. In offline training, the enhanced LOFAR spectrum is adopted as the input of convolutional neural network (CNN) and a LOFAR-based CNN (LOFAR-CNN) for online recognition is developed. Taking advantage of the powerful capability of CNN in feature extraction, the recognition accuracy can be further improved by the proposed LOFAR-CNN. Finally, extensive simulation results demonstrate that the LOFAR-CNN network can achieve a recognition accuracy of 95.22%, which outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.

Ultralight dark photons and axions are well-motivated hypothetical dark matter candidates. Both dark photon dark matter and axion dark matter can resonantly convert into electromagnetic waves in the solar corona when their mass is equal to the solar plasma frequency. The resultant electromagnetic waves appear as monochromatic signals within the radio-frequency range with an energy equal to the dark matter mass, which can be detected via radio telescopes for solar observations. Here we show our search for converted monochromatic signals in the observational data collected by the high-sensitivity Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope and establish an upper limit on the kinetic mixing coupling between dark photon dark matter and photon, which can reach values as low as 10 −13 within the frequency range of 30 − 80 MHz. This limit represents an improvement of approximately one order of magnitude better than the existing constraint from the cosmic microwave background observation. Additionally, we derive an upper limit on the axion-photon coupling within the same frequency range, which is better than the constraints from Light-Shining-through-a-Wall experiments while not exceeding the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) experiment or other astrophysical bounds. Hypothetical dark photon (DP) dark matter (DM) and axion DM might resonantly convert into electromagnetic waves in the solar corona. Here, the authors show upper limits on the axion-photon coupling and on the kinetic mixing coupling of DPDM and photon within 30-80 MHz in the solar corona radio observations.

We conducted an extensive identification and analysis of various morphological classes and subclasses of radio galaxies using the latest high-resolution data from the second data release of the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey. This paper presents the first results of our large-scale investigation: a new catalog of “winged” radio galaxies (WRGs). These objects represent a fascinating class of irregular radio galaxies, characterized by a pair of secondary radio lobes (“wings”) in addition to the primary active lobes. We identified and cataloged 621 new WRGs and 403 additional candidates. Among the confirmed winged sources, 382 are classified as “X”-shaped radio galaxies, while the remaining 239 are “Z”-shaped radio galaxies. We also estimated several basic parameters for these winged sources and performed a Fanaroff–Riley classification. Our results show that the majority of the sources (∼88%) exhibit edge-brightened radio lobes and high average radio power ( log10[P144MHzWHz−1] = 26.25), consistent with an FR II classification. The average spectral index between 144 MHz and 1.4 GHz is –0.84, which is steeper than that found for previously identified winged sources based on higher-frequency data from the Very Large Array Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-centimeters survey. This indicates that our study is capable of detecting fainter sources. The median linear size of the winged sources, 498 kpc, confirms that these are large-scale structures, with approximately 16% having sizes exceeding 0.7 Mpc, making them potential candidates for giant radio galaxies.

Calvera (1RXS J141256.0+792204) is a pulsar of characteristic age 285 kyr at a high Galactic latitude of b = +37°, detected only in soft thermal X-rays. We measure a new and precise proper motion for Calvera using Chandra High Resolution Camera observations obtained 10 yr apart. We also derive a new phase-connected ephemeris using 6 yr of NICER data, including the astrometric position and proper motion as fixed parameters in the timing solution. Calvera is located near the center of a faint, circular radio ring that was recently discovered by LOFAR and confirmed as a supernova remnant (SNR) by the detection of γ-ray emission with Fermi Large Area Telescope. The proper motion of 78.5 ± 2.9 mas yr−1 at position angle 241.°3 ± 2.°2 (in Galactic coordinates) points away from the center of the ring, a result which differs markedly from a previous low-significance measurement, and greatly simplifies the interpretation of the SNR/pulsar association. It argues that the supernova indeed birthed Calvera <10 kyr ago, with an initial spin period close to its present value of 59 ms. The tangential velocity of the pulsar depends on its uncertain distance, v t = (372 ± 14)d 1 kpc km s−1, but is probably dominated by the supernova kick, while its progenitor could have been a runaway O or B star from the Galactic disk.

Ram pressure stripping is a crucial evolutionary driver for cluster galaxies. It is thought to be able to accelerate the evolution of their star formation, trigger the activity of their central active galactic nucleus (AGN) and the interplay between galactic and environmental gas, and eventually dissipate their gas reservoirs. We explored the outcomes of ram pressure stripping by studying the nonthermal radio emission of the jellyfish galaxy JW100 in the cluster A2626 (z = 0.055), by combining LOw Frequency Array, MeerKAT, and Very Large Array observations from 0.144 to 5.5 GHz. We studied the integrated spectra of the stellar disk, the stripped tail, and the AGN; mapped the spectral index over the galaxy; and constrained the magnetic field intensity to between 11 and 18 μG in the disk and <10 μG in the tail. The stellar disk radio emission is dominated by a radiatively old plasma, likely related to an older phase of a high star formation rate. This suggests that the star formation was quickly quenched by a factor of 4 in a few 107 yr. The radio emission in the tail is consistent with the stripping scenario, where the radio plasma that originally accelerated in the disk is subsequently displaced in the tail. The morphology of the radio and X-ray emissions supports the scenario of the accretion of magnetized environmental plasma onto the galaxy. The AGN nonthermal spectrum indicates that relativistic electron acceleration may have occurred simultaneously with a central ionized gas outflow, thus suggesting a physical connection between the two processes.