Evolution of giant radio sources

Abstract We present radio images of two giant quasars from the Molonglo/1 Jy sample, and make a comparative study of giant radio sources selected from the literature with 3CR radio sources of smaller sizes to investigate the evolution of giant sources, and test their consistency with the unified scheme. The luminosity-size diagram shows that the giant sources are less luminous than smaller-sized sources, consistent with evolutionary scenarios where the giants have evolved from the smaller sources, losing energy as they expand. For the giant sources the equipartition magnetic fields are smaller, and inverse-Compton losses with the microwave background radiation dominates over synchrotron losses, while the reverse is true for the smaller sources. The giant radio sources have core strengths similar to those of smaller sources of similar total luminosity; hence their large sizes are unlikely to be due to stronger nuclear activity. The radio properties of the giant radio galaxies and quasars are consistent with the unified scheme.