Radio observations of early-type galaxies.

A complete sample of 34 nearby early-type galaxies, based on the Arecibo survey by Dressel and Condon (1978) of objects from the Uppsala General Catalogue, has now been mapped at radio frequencies. New data are presented for 23 galaxies in the sample, and references are given to published maps of the remainder. The majority of the sources show strong jet-like structures, but others remain unresolved. These latter occur primarily in galaxies classed as S0 in the UGC. A strong correlation between radio luminosity and size has been found with log P (2.7 GHz) between 23.0 and 25.0. This correlation is in the sense that weak sources are confined within the optical extent of their parent galaxies, whereas strong sources generally attain large sizes. A tentative explanation of this tendency is offered in terms of the flow instabilities in beams of energetic particles passing through dense media.