Stormy Weather in 3C 196.1: Nuclear Outbursts and Merger Events Shape the Environment of the Hybrid Radio Galaxy 3C 196.1

We present a multiwavelength analysis based on archival radio, optical, and X-ray data of the complex radio source 3C 196.1, whose host is the brightest cluster galaxy of a z = 0.198 cluster. HST data show H alpha+[N II] emission aligned with the jet 8.4 GHz radio emission. An H alpha+[N II] filament coincides with the brightest X-ray emission, the northern hotspot. Analysis of the X-ray and radio images reveals cavities located at galactic and cluster scales. The galactic-scale cavity is almost devoid of 8.4 GHz radio emission and the southwestern H alpha+[N II] emission is bounded (in projection) by this cavity. The outer cavity is cospatial with the peak of 147 MHz radio emission, and hence we interpret this depression in X-ray surface brightness as being caused by a buoyantly rising bubble originating from an active galactic nuclei outburst similar to 280 Myr ago. A Chandra snapshot observation allowed us to constrain the physical parameters of the cluster, which has a cool core with a low central temperature similar to 2.8 keV, low central entropy index similar to 13 keV. cm(2) and a short cooling time of similar to 500 Myr, which is < 0.05 of the age of the universe at this redshift. By fitting jumps in the X-ray density, we found Mach numbers between 1.4 and 1.6, consistent with a shock origin. We also found compelling evidence of a past merger, indicated by a morphology reminiscent of gas sloshing in the X-ray residual image. Finally, we computed the pressures, enthalpies E-cav and jet powers P-jet associated with the cavities: E-cav similar to 7 x 10(58) erg, P-jet similar to 1.9 x 10(44) erg s(-1) for the inner cavity and E-cav similar to 3 x 10(60) erg, P-jet similar to 3.4 x 10(44) erg s(-1) for the outer cavity.