The "toothbrush-relic": evidence for a coherent linear 2-Mpc scale shock
  wave in a massive merging galaxy cluster?
  Some merging galaxy clusters host diffuse extended radio emission, so-called
radio halos and relics. Here we present observations between 147 MHz and 4.9
GHz of a new radio-selected galaxy cluster 1RXS J0603.3+4214 (z=0.225). The
cluster is also detected as an extended X-ray source in the RASS. It hosts a
large bright 1.9 Mpc radio relic, an elongated ~2 Mpc radio halo, and two
smaller radio relics. The large radio relic has a peculiar linear morphology.
For this relic we observe a clear spectral index gradient, in the direction
towards the cluster center. We performed Rotation Measure (RM) Synthesis
between 1.2 and 1.7 GHz. The results suggest that for the west part of the
large relic some of the Faraday rotation is caused by ICM and is not only due
to galactic foregrounds. We also carried out a detailed spectral analysis of
this radio relic and created radio color-color diagrams. We find (i) an
injection spectral index of -0.6 to -0.7, (ii) steepening spectral index and
increasing spectral curvature in the post-shock region, and (iii) an overall
power-law spectrum between 74 MHz and 4.9 GHz with \alpha=-1.10 \pm 0.02.
Mixing of emission in the beam from regions with different spectral ages is
probably the dominant factor that determines the shape of the radio spectra.
Changes in the magnetic field, total electron content, or adiabatic
gains/losses do not play a major role. A model in which particles are
(re)accelerated in a first order Fermi process at the front of the relic
provides the best match to the observed spectra. We speculate that in the
post-shock region particles are re-accelerated by merger induced turbulence to
form the radio halo as the relic and halo are connected. The 1RXS J0603.3+4214
merger is probably more complex than the "simple'" binary merger events that
are thought to give rise to symmetric double radio relics.
