Searching for radio relics and halos. Their role in the formation and acceleration of extragalactic cosmic rays

Abstract: We search for extended regions of radio emission not associated with Active Galactic Nuclei, known as 'relics', 'halos' and 'mini halo's, in a sample of 70 Abell clusters for which we have radio, optical and X-ray data. AGN can produce particle bubbles of non-thermal emission, which can restrict cosmic rays. Hence radio relics and (mini) halos could be forming as a result of the confinement of cosmic rays by these bubbles. We are probing the role that intracluster mag- netic fields (using Faraday rotation measure and inverse compton arguments), mergers (through radio/X-ray interactions), cooling flows (X-ray data), radio jets/shocks as well as radio (mini) halos/relics play in the formation, acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays. For the current study we have selected two powerful nearby radio galaxies from our sample: Hercules A and 3C 388. We report on the work in progress and future plans.