Relativistic AGN jets – III. Synthesis of synchrotron emission from double-double radio galaxies

Abstract

ABSTRACT The class of double-double radio galaxies (DDRGs) relates to episodic jet outbursts. How various regions and components add to the total intensity in radio images is less well known. In this paper, we synthesize synchrotron images for DDRGs based on special relativistic hydrodynamic simulations, making advanced approximations for the magnetic fields. We study the synchrotron images for three different radial jet profiles; ordered, entangled, or mixed magnetic fields; spectral ageing from synchrotron cooling; the contribution from different jet components; the viewing angle and Doppler (de-)boosting; and the various epochs of the evolution of the DDRG. To link our results to observational data, we adopt to J1835+6204 as a reference source. In all cases, the synthesized synchrotron images show two clear pairs of hotspots, in the inner and outer lobes. The best resemblance is obtained for the piecewise isochoric jet model, for a viewing angle of approximately ϑ ∼ −71°, i.e. inclined with the lower jet towards the observer, with predominantly entangled (≳70 per cent of the magnetic pressure) in turbulent, rather than ordered fields. The effects of spectral ageing become significant when the ratio of observation frequencies and cut-off frequency νobs/ν∞, 0 ≳ 10−3, corresponding to ∼3 × 102 MHz. For viewing angles ϑ ≲ |−30°|, a DDRG morphology can no longer be recognized. The second jets must be injected within ≲ 4 per cent of the lifetime of the first jets for a DDRG structure to emerge, which is relevant for active galactic nuclei feedback constraints.