MWA and ASKAP observations of atypical radio-halo-hosting galaxy clusters: Abell 141 and Abell 3404

We report on the detection of a giant radio halo in the cluster Abell 3404 as well as confirmation of the radio halo observed in Abell 141 (with linear extents similar to 770 and similar to 850 kpc, respectively). We use the Murchison Widefield Array, the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, and the Australia Telescope Compact Array to characterise the emission and intervening radio sources from similar to 100 to 1 000 MHz; power law models are fit to the spectral energy distributions with spectral indices alpha(1110)(88) =-1.66 +/- 0.07 and alpha(943)(88) =-1.06 +/- 0.09 for the radio halos in Abell 3404 and Abell 141, respectively. We find strong correlation between radio and X-ray surface brightness for Abell 3404 but little correlation for Abell 141. We note that each cluster has an atypical morphology for a radio-halo-hosting cluster, with Abell 141 having been previously reported to be in a pre-merging state, and Abell 3404 is largely relaxed with only minor evidence for a disturbed morphology. We find that the radio halo powers are consistent with the current radio halo sample and P-nu-M scaling relations, but note that the radio halo in Abell 3404 is an ultra-steep-spectrum radio halo (USSRH) and, as with other USSRHs lies slightly below the best-fit P-1.4-M relation. We find that an updated scaling relation is consistent with previous results and shifting the frequency to 150 MHz does not significantly alter the best-fit relations with a sample of 86 radio halos. We suggest that the USSRH halo in Abell 3404 represents the faint class of radio halos that will be found in clusters undergoing weak mergers.

Automated summary

The study reports on the detection of a giant radio halo in the cluster Abell 3404 and confirms the observed radio halo in Abell 141. The radio halo powers are consistent with the current sample and scaling relations, but there are differences in morphology and correlation with X-ray brightness between the two clusters. The radio halo in Abell 3404 is classified as an ultra-steep-spectrum radio halo (USSRH) and represents a faint class of radio halos found in clusters undergoing weak mergers.