Determining radio halo/mini-halo upper limits for MGCLS

Project Description:

Clusters that do not host detectable diffuse radio emission still carry a wealth of information on the latter’s formation mechanism, particularly where the clusters exhibit dynamical signatures. One prediction of the radio halo turbulent reacceleration model is a bimodal population in the radio power/X-ray plane, where non-detections are separate from halo-hosting clusters. To place these clusters in the context of the scaling relations, one needs to determine upper limits based on the cluster properties. We will determine radio halo and/or mini-halo upper limits for the non-detections in the MGCLS through image- and visibility-injection techniques and investigate these in the context of the cluster dynamical state. At the Masters level, this ambitious project is likely to produce a journal publication. The student must be familiar with Python coding.

Research Area:

Astronomy

Project Level:

Masters

This Project Is Offered At The Following Node(s):

(UCT)(UKZN)(NWU)

Special Requirements:

Familiarity with Python is required. Experience with working with MeerKAT visibilities is advantageous.