Radio emission and the optical isophotal twist of radio-loud ellipticals

Using the surface photometric analysis data for a well defined sample of 79 nearby radio galaxies ($z \le 0.12$), it is shown that the level of radio emission associated with an elliptical galaxy during the radio-loud phase is related to the presence of large amounts of isophotal twist in its optical image. In particular, radio galaxies with $P_{\rm 408} > 3 \times 10^{25}$ W Hz -1 appear to show a preference to be associated with elliptical hosts exhibiting an isophotal twist in excess of ∼ 20°.