Abstract: Radio relics are diffuse radio sources typically observed in merging galaxy cluster outskirts, tracing shock waves propagating in the intracluster medium. Shock waves are thought to be responsible for the (re-)acceleration of relativistic particles and for the amplification of the intracluster magnetic fields. These two elements interact through the synchrotron mechanism, giving rise to an arc-shaped polarized emission, with a spectral index gradient across the relic width.
In this talk, I will briefly review what we know about radio relics in galaxy clusters and present a recent study regarding the northern relic of CIZA J2242.8+5301. For the first time thanks to the capabilities of the Sardinia Radio Telescope it has been possible to detect a radio relic at high frequency, i.e. 19 GHz, both in total intensity and polarization.

Brief CV of Dr. Francesca Loi:

She has got the master degree in Physics at the University of Cagliari in 2014. In the same year she started a PhD under the supervision of Matteo Murgia and Federica Govoni on "Magnetic fields in galaxy clusters in the SKA era" at the INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari. After she got her PhD, in 2018 she started her first Post Doc at the University of Bologna in collaboration with Annalisa Bonafede. The project was focused on determine through simulations the magnetic fields in clusters as observed by the SKA. Since the end of 2019 she started her second Post Doc at the INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari with the collaboration of Paolo Serra, Federica  Govoni, and Matteo Murgia to map the magnetic field of the galaxies cluster Fornax by using MeerKAT data.