Description
The question whether the different classes of radio galaxies is influenced or, in turn, it influences the nearby environment is still an open issue. Previous studies concluded that the radio galaxies classified as BLO and HEG are mostly isolated galaxies, or at most in small groups, while LEGs tend to lie in a richer environment (i.e., groups or clusters). In this work, we studied a sample of 80 FR II radio galaxies included in the 3C catalog with z < 0.3. The sample includes a total of 22 LEGs, 31 HEGs and 16 BLOs and allows a statistical study of the various ambient they inhabit. The Red Sequence (RS) is a powerful tool to search for companion galaxies. We used the available photometric data of the Pan-STARRS survey DR2. The distribution of the number of sources included into the RS for the three classes are not statistically distinguishable. However, a slightly dissimilarity is highlighted by the median values of the distributions, due to a slight preference of LEGs to avoid very poor environments.
