Giant Radio Galaxies (GRG) are the largest single entities in the Universe, having a projected linear size exceeding 0.7 Mpc, which implies that they are also quite old objects. They are not common, representing a fraction of only ∼6% in samples of bright radio galaxies. While a census of about 300 of these objects has been built in the past years, still no light has been shed on the conditions necessary to allow such an exceptional growth, whether of environmental nature or linked to the inner accretion properties. Recent studies found that samples of radio galaxies selected from hard X-ray AGN catalogs selected from INTEGRAL/IBIS and Swift/BAT (thus at energies >20 keV) present a fraction of GRG four times larger than what found in radio-selected samples.We present radio observations of 15 nuclei of hard X-ray selected GRG, finding for the first time a large fraction (61%) of young radio sources at the center of Mpc-scale structures. Being at the center of GRG, these young nuclei may be undergoing a restarting activity episode, suggesting a link between the detected hard X-ray emission -due to the ongoing accretion -and the reactivation of the jets.

About 6% of Radio Galaxies (RG) can reach linear sizes larger than 0.7 Mpc, and are then classified as Giant Radio Galaxies (GRG). The conditions that make possible the formation of such big structures is still not clear -either core accretion properties or environmental factors. Recent studies have shown that GRG can be up to four times more abundant in hard X-ray selected (i.e. from INTEGRAL/IBIS and Swift/BAT at >20 keV) RG samples. Moreover, a high fraction of young radio sources found in their cores suggests a recently restarted activity, as suggested from the discrepancy between the measured jet and lobes power, with respect to the one expected from core X-ray luminosity. Here we present a radio morphological study of a sample of 15 hard X-ray selected GRG, discussing low-frequency images from our GMRT campaign complemented with others from the literature: among them, 7/15 show evidence of restarted radio activity either in the form of double-double/X-shaped morphology, or as a cocoon emission embedding more recent jets. This, together with the objects from this sample already found hosting a young radio source in their core, suggests that at least 13 over 15 of these hard X-ray selected GRG show features which are consistent with the possibility of restarted radio activity.

Context. The well established negative correlation between the α OX spectral slope and the optical/UV luminosity, a by product of the relation between X-rays and optical/UV luminosity, is affected by a relatively large dispersion. The main contributions can be variability in the X-ray/UV ratio and/or changes in fundamental physical parameters. Aims. We want to quantify the contribution of variability within single sources (intra-source dispersion) and that due to variations of other quantities different from source to source (inter-source dispersion). Methods. We use archival data from the XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalog (XMMSSC) and from the XMM-OM Serendipitous Ultra-violet Source Survey (XMMOM-SUSS3). We select a sub-sample in order to decrease the dispersion of the relation due to the presence of Radio-Loud and Broad Absorption Line objects, and to absorptions in both X-ray and optical/UV bands. We use the Structure Function (SF) to estimate the contribution of variability to the dispersion. We analyse the dependence of the residuals of the relation on various physical parameters in order to characterise the inter-source dispersion. Results. We find a total dispersion of σ ∼0.12 and we find that intrinsic variability contributes for 56% of the variance of the α OX − L UV relation. If we select only sources with a larger number of observational epochs (≥ 3) the dispersion of the relation decreases by approximately 15%. We find weak but significant dependences of the residuals of the relation on black-hole mass and on Eddington ratio, which are also confirmed by a multivariate regression analysis of α OX as a function of UV luminosity and black-hole mass and/or Eddington ratio. We find a weak positive correlation of both the α OX index and the residuals of the α OX − L UV relation with inclination indicators, such as the FWHM(Hβ) and the EW[O III ], suggesting a weak increase of X-ray/UV ratio with the viewing angle. This suggests the development of new viewing angle indicators possibly applicable at higher redshifts. Moreover, our results suggest the possibility of selecting a sample of objects, based on their viewing angle and/or black-hole mass and Eddington ratio, for which the α OX − L UV relation is as tight as possible, in light of the use of the optical/UV -X-ray luminosity relation to build a distance modulus (DM)z plane and estimate cosmological parameters.