the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) went through the technical commissioning phase. The characterization involved three¯rst-light receivers, ranging in frequency between 300 MHz and 26 GHz, connected to a Total Power back-end. It also tested and employed the telescope active surface installed in the main re°ector of the antenna. The instrument status and performance proved to be in good agreement with the expectations in terms of surface panels alignment (at present 300 m rms to be improved with microwave holography), gain ($0.6 K/Jy in the given frequency range), pointing accuracy (5 arcsec at 22 GHz) and overall single-dish operational capabilities. Unresolved issues include the commissioning of the receiver centered at 350 MHz, which was compromised by several radio frequency interferences, and a lower-than-expected aperture e±ciency for the 22-GHz receiver when pointing at low elevations. Nevertheless, the SRT, at present completing its Astronomical Validation phase, is positively approaching its opening to the scienti¯c community.

Aims. We study the intra-cluster magnetic field in the poor galaxy cluster Abell 194 by complementing radio data, at different frequencies, with data in the optical and X-ray bands. Methods. We analyze new total intensity and polarization observations of Abell 194 obtained with the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT). We use the SRT data in combination with archival Very Large Array observations to derive both the spectral aging and Rotation Measure (RM) images of the radio galaxies 3C 40A and 3C 40B embedded in Abell 194. To obtain new additional insights in the cluster structure we investigate the redshifts of 1893 galaxies, resulting in a sample of 143 fiducial cluster members. We analyze the available ROSAT and Chandra observations to measure the electron density profile of the galaxy cluster.Results. The optical analysis indicates that Abell 194 does not show a major and recent cluster merger, but rather agrees with a scenario of accretion of small groups, mainly along the NE-SW direction. Under the minimum energy assumption, the lifetimes of synchrotron electrons in 3C40 B measured from the spectral break are found to be 157±11 Myrs. The break frequency image and the electron density profile inferred from the X-ray emission are used in combination with the RM data to constrain the intra-cluster magnetic field power spectrum. By assuming a Kolmogorov power law power spectrum with a minimum scale of fluctuations of Λ min = 1 kpc, we find that the RM data in Abell 194 are well described by a magnetic field with a maximum scale of fluctuations of Λ max = (64 ± 24) kpc. We find a central magnetic field strength of B 0 = (1.5 ± 0.2) µG, the lowest ever measured so far in galaxy clusters based on Faraday rotation analysis. Further out, the field decreases with the radius following the gas density to the power of η=1.1±0.2. Comparing Abell 194 with a small sample of galaxy clusters, there is a hint of a trend between central electron densities and magnetic field strengths.

Context. Radio loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) are episodic in nature, cycling through periods of activity and quiescence. The study of this duty cycle has recently gained new relevance because of the importance of AGN feedback for galaxy evolution. Aims. In this work we investigate the duty cycle of the radio galaxy B2 0258+35, which was previously suggested to be a restarted radio galaxy based on its morphology. The radio source consists of a pair of kpc-scale jets embedded in two large-scale lobes (∼240 kpc) with relaxed shape and very low surface brightness, which resemble remnants of a past AGN activity.

Context. The Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) is the new 64 m dish operated by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF).Its active surface, comprised of 1008 separate aluminium panels supported by electromechanical actuators, will allow us to observe at frequencies of up to 116 GHz. At the moment, three receivers, one per focal position, have been installed and tested: a 7-beam K-band receiver, a mono-feed C-band receiver, and a coaxial dual-feed L/P band receiver. The SRT was officially opened in September 2013, upon completion of its technical commissioning phase. In this paper, we provide an overview of the main science drivers for the SRT, describe the main outcomes from the scientific commissioning of the telescope, and discuss a set of observations demonstrating the scientific capabilities of the SRT. Aims. The scientific commissioning phase, carried out in the 2012-2015 period, proceeded in stages following the implementation and/or fine-tuning of advanced subsystems such as the active surface, the derotator, new releases of the acquisition software, etc. One of the main objectives of scientific commissioning was the identification of deficiencies in the instrumentation and/or in the telescope subsystems for further optimization. As a result, the overall telescope performance has been significantly improved. Methods. As part of the scientific commissioning activities, different observing modes were tested and validated, and the first astronomical observations were carried out to demonstrate the science capabilities of the SRT. In addition, we developed astronomeroriented software tools to support future observers on site. In the following, we refer to the overall scientific commissioning and software development activities as astronomical validation. Results. The astronomical validation activities were prioritized based on technical readiness and scientific impact. The highest priority was to make the SRT available for joint observations as part of European networks. As a result, the SRT started to participate (in shared-risk mode) in European VLBI Network (EVN) and Large European Array for Pulsars (LEAP) observing sessions in early 2014. The validation of single-dish operations for the suite of SRT first light receivers and backends continued in the following year, and was concluded with the first call for shared-risk early-science observations issued at the end of 2015. As discussed in the paper, the SRT capabilities were tested (and optimized when possible) for several different observing modes: imaging, spectroscopy, pulsar timing, and transients.

Observations of supernova remnants (SNRs) are a powerful tool for investigating the later stages of stellar evolution, the properties of the ambient interstellar medium, and the physics of particle acceleration and shocks. For a fraction of SNRs, multi-wavelength coverage from radio to ultrahigh-energies has been provided, constraining their contributions to the production of Galactic cosmic rays. Although radio emission is the most common identifier of SNRs and a prime probe for refining models, high-resolution images at frequencies above 5 GHz are surprisingly lacking, even for bright and well-known SNRs such as IC443 and W44. In the frameworks of the Astronomical Validation and Early Science Program with the 64-m single-dish Sardinia Radio Telescope, we provided, for the first time, single-dish deep imaging at 7 GHz of the IC443 and W44 complexes coupled with spatially-resolved spectra in the 1.5 − 7 GHz frequency range. Our images were obtained through on-the-fly mapping techniques, providing antenna beam oversampling and resulting in accurate continuum flux density measurements. The integrated flux densities associated with IC443 are S 1.5GHz = 134 ± 4 Jy and S 7GHz = 67 ± 3 Jy. For W44, we measured total flux densities of S 1.5GHz = 214 ± 6 Jy and S 7GHz = 94 ± 4 Jy. Spectral index maps provide evidence of a wide physical parameter scatter among different SNR regions: a flat spectrum is observed from the brightest SNR regions at the shock, while steeper spectral indices (up to ∼ 0.7) are observed in fainter cooling regions, disentangling in this way different populations and spectra of radio/gamma-ray-emitting electrons in these SNRs.

We report the detection of diffuse radio emission which might be connected to a largescale filament of the cosmic web covering a 8 • ×8 • area in the sky, likely associated with a z≈0.1 over-density traced by nine massive galaxy clusters. In this work, we present radio observations of this region taken with the Sardinia Radio Telescope. Two of the clusters in the field host a powerful radio halo sustained by violent ongoing mergers and provide direct proof of intra-cluster magnetic fields. In order to investigate the presence of large-scale diffuse radio synchrotron emission in and beyond the galaxy clusters in this complex system, we combined the data taken at 1.4 GHz obtained with the Sardinia Radio Telescope with higher resolution data taken with the NRAO VLA Sky Survey. We found 28 candidate new sources with a size larger and X-ray emission fainter than known diffuse large-scale synchrotron cluster sources for a given radio power. This new population is potentially the tip of the iceberg of a class of diffuse large-scale synchrotron sources associated with the filaments of the cosmic web. In addition, we found in the field a candidate new giant radio galaxy.

We present new observations of the galaxy cluster 3C 129 obtained with the Sardinia Radio Telescope in the frequency range 6000−7200 MHz, with the aim to image the large-angular-scale emission at high-frequency of the radio sources located in this cluster of galaxies. The data were acquired using the recently-commissioned ROACH2-based backend to produce full-Stokes image cubes of an area of 1 o ×1 o centered on the radio source 3C 129. We modeled and deconvolved the telescope beam pattern from the data. We also measured the instrumental polarization beam patterns to correct the polarization images for off-axis instrumental polarization. Total intensity images at an angular resolution of 2.9 ′ were obtained for the tailed radio galaxy 3C 129 and for 13 more sources in the field, including 3C 129.1 at the galaxy cluster center. These data were used, in combination with literature data at lower frequencies, to derive the variation of the synchrotron spectrum of 3C 129 along the tail of the radio source. If the magnetic field is at the equipartition value, we showed that the lifetimes of radiating electrons result in a radiative age for 3C 129 of t syn ≃ 267 ± 26 Myrs. Assuming a linear projected length of 488 kpc for the tail, we deduced that 3C 129 is moving supersonically with a Mach number of M = v gal /c s = 1.47. Linearly polarized emission was clearly detected for both 3C 129 and 3C 129.1. The linear polarization measured for 3C 129 reaches levels as high as 70% in the faintest region of the source where the magnetic field is aligned with the direction of the tail.

We observed the galaxy cluster CIZA J2242.8+5301 with the Sardinia Radio Telescope to provide new constraints on its spectral properties at high frequency. We conducted observations in three frequency bands centred at 1.4 GHz, 6.6 GHz and 19 GHz, resulting in beam resolutions of 14 ′ , 2.9 ′ and 1 ′ respectively. These single-dish data were also combined with archival interferometric observations at 1.4 and 1.7 GHz. From the combined images, we measured a flux density of S 1.4GHz = (158.3 ± 9.6) mJy for the central radio halo and S 1.4GHz = (126 ± 8) mJy and S 1.4GHz = (11.7 ± 0.7) mJy for the northern and the southern relic respectively. After the spectral modelling of the discrete sources, we measured at 6.6 GHz S 6.6GHz = (17.1 ± 1.2) mJy and S 6.6GHz = (0.6 ± 0.3) mJy for the northern and southern relic respectively. Assuming simple diffusive shock acceleration, we interpret measurements of the northern relic with a continuous injection model represented by a broken power-law. This yields an injection spectral index α inj = 0.7 ± 0.1 and a Mach number M = 3.3 ± 0.9, consistent with recent X-ray estimates. Unlike other studies of the same object, no significant steepening of the relic radio emission is seen in data up to 8.35 GHz. By fitting the southern relic spectrum with a simple power-law (S ν ∝ ν −α ) we obtained a spectral index α ≈ 1.9 corresponding to a Mach number (M ≈ 1.8) in agreement with X-ray estimates. Finally, we evaluated the rotation measure of the northern relic at 6.6 GHz. These results provide new insights on the magnetic structure of the relic, but further observations are needed to clarify the nature of the observed Faraday rotation.