2014MNRAS.440.2901S

We present deep 1.1-3.1GHz Australia Telescope Compact Array observations of the radio halo of the bullet cluster, 1E 0657-55.8. In comparison to existing images of this radio halo, the detection in our images is at higher significance. The radio halo is as extended as the X-ray emission in the direction of cluster merger but is significantly less extended than the X-ray emission in the perpendicular direction. At low significance, we detect a faint second peak in the radio halo close to the X-ray centroid of the smaller sub-cluster (the bullet) suggesting that, similarly to the X-ray emission, the radio halo may consist of two components. Finally, we find that the distinctive shape of the western edge of the radio halo traces out the X-ray detected bow shock. The radio halo morphology and the lack of strong point-to-point correlations between radio, X-ray and weak-lensing properties suggest that the radio halo is still being formed. The colocation of the X-ray shock with a distinctive radio brightness edge illustrates that the shock is influencing the structure of the radio halo. These observations support the theory that shocks and turbulence influence the formation and evolution of radio halo synchrotron emission.