A LOFAR view on the duty cycle of young radio sources

Compact Steep Spectrum, Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum, and High Frequency Peak (CSS, GPS, HFP) sources are considered to be young radio sources, but the details of their duty cycle are not well understood. In some cases they are thought to develop in FRI/FRII radio galaxies while in other cases their jets may remain confined within the host galaxy, and some may experience intermittent activity or die prematurely, never reaching the size of large classical double radio galaxies. Studying in a systematic way the presence and the properties of any extended emission surrounding these compact sources can provide firmer constraints on their evolutionary history and on the timescales of activity of the radio source. Remnant emission from previous outbursts is supposed to have very low surface brightness and to be brighter at low frequency. Taking advantage of the unprecedented sensitivity and resolution provided by the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) we have started a systematic search of new CSS, GPS, and HFP sources with extended emission, as well as a more detailed study of some well-known of these sources. Here we present the key points of our search in the LOFAR fields and a more in-depth analysis on the source B2 0258+35, a CSS source surrounded by a pair of large, diffuse radio lobes. In this way, we aim to provide a better census of restarted sources and a better knowledge of the variety of their duty cycle. (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)