Research > Projects > RED ALERT

For decades astronomers have known that during the formation process of galaxy clusters shocks and turbulence generated in the intra-cluster medium can induce particle acceleration and form Mpc-scale diffuse radio sources. The new generation radio telescopes are revolutionizing this field, unveiling for the very first time the presence of diffuse radio emission from regions extended on unprecedented large scales, larger than clusters themselves. These gigantic (3-5 Mpc) synchrotron sources are the largest in the Universe and open a new frontier for studying cosmic magnetic fields and particle acceleration mechanisms operating on physical scales and regimes that have never been probed before.
The REvealing Diffuse non-thermAL components on scales largER Than galaxy clusters (RED ALERT) project will decisively enter into this transformational science case by combining observations from the world most powerful low-frequency telescopes, including the pan-European LOFAR observatory, with the state-of-the-art theoretical models and numerical simulations. Specifically, it aims at investigating 1) the role of relativistic plasma ejected from supermassive black holes in generating cluster diffuse radio emission; 2) the processes leading to the formation of radio emission extended up to the cluster virial radius and their connection with the dynamics of cluster outskirts; 3) on even larger scales, the mechanisms that amplify magnetic fields and accelerate particles in bridges of matter connecting pairs of interacting clusters.