A Radio Study of Abell Clusters

Abstract

A search for radio sources close to 247 clusters of galaxies in the Abell catalogue has been carried out at the Molonglo Radio Observatory at a frequency of 408 MHz. A list of 116 sources near 89 clusters is given, identifications have been made and criteria for cluster membership have been established. A cluster luminosity function is derived in the range 1()23_1025 WHz-l SCi, and spectra have been obtained for sources in 25 clusters utilizing published surveys made at other frequencies. It is found that there is no correlation between the richness of a cluster and its inclusion of at least one radio source, but those clusters containing multiple sources are significantly richer than average.