A 20-CM VLA SURVEY OF ABELL CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES .4. THE RADIO SAMPLE AND CLUSTER PROPERTIES

This is the fourth in a series of papers describing an in depth study of a large statistical sample of radio galaxies in Abell clusters. This sample forms the basis of a detailed optical and radio study of the host galaxy properties, environments, and evolutionary models for radio galaxies as a class of objects. In this paper, we examine the radio detection statistics as a function of cluster morphological type, galaxy richness, and spatial location within the cluster galaxy distribution. These relationships are also parameterized as a function of radio power. The spatial distributions of the radio sources as a function of distance from the cluster center indicate that radio galaxies are preferentially located at small radii from the center of the cluster potential. This is observed as a factor of 2-3 excess over that predicted by a King-model surface-density distribution. The excess is higher in the upper radio power bin. This result is easily explained, however, from the spatial distribution of the brightest galaxies and the relationship between radio and optical luminosity. The sample is divided into richness classes 0, 1, and 2, according to Abell's criterion, and in two radio power ranges. While simple counting shows that richer clusters have more radio galaxies in both radio power bins, when the detections are scaled to the number of galaxies surveyed in each cluster, no significant correlations are found. This result implies that the number of radio galaxies detected simply scales with the number of galaxies surveyed. The higher galaxy density (and presumably higher ICM gas density) in richer clusters does not appear to affect the rate of radio source formation. The clusters are divided into Rood-Sastry and Bautz-Morgan morphological types. While it would appear that the more regular clusters have higher radio detection rates, when the classes are normalized to the number of galaxies, the radio detection rates are found to be identical regardless of cluster morphology. In conclusion, it is the optical properties of the host galaxy which most influence both the radio detection rate and the radio source properties. The cluster properties, galaxy density, and spatial location of the galaxy do not significantly affect the observed radio statistics.