Infrared Diagnostics of the ISM in the Circumnuclear Environments of the Youngest Radio Galaxies

Here we present a systematic analysis of the mid-infrared properties of young radio galaxies, based on lower-resolution data provided by WISE and IRAS satellites. We restrict our analysis to sources in the earliest phase of radio galaxy evolution, with corresponding ages of the radio structures ≤ 3,000 yrs. In our sample of 29 objects, we find a variety of WISE colors, which suggests that the mid-infrared continua of studied sources are not exclusively contributed to by the circumnuclear dust. A comparison of the total mid-infrared and absorption-corrected X-ray luminosities for our sample reveals a clear correlation between the two bands. This favors the scenario in which the observed X-ray emission of young radio galaxies — at least the high-luminosity ones — originates predominantly in accretion disk corona.