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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rashid, Md, Roy, Nirupam, Dutta, Prasun, Pandian, Jagadheep D., Vig, Sarita, Pal, Srijita, Chakraborty, Arnab, Choudhuri, Samir
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.04521
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Table of Contents:
  • The Orion Nebula is the closest high-mass star-forming region, making it an ideal laboratory to investigate physical processes in complex star-forming environments. At radio frequencies, the dominant emission mechanisms are thermal bremsstrahlung and non-thermal synchrotron. HII regions typically emit thermal radiation tracing the ionised gas; however, detecting and characterising non-thermal emission can provide insights into magnetic fields and the energy distribution of relativistic particles in star-forming regions. We have utilised the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) to study radio emission in the Extended Orion Nebula (EON) region. We present results from wide-band interferometric observations using uGMRT bands 3 and 4, probing a frequency range not covered by other sensitive radio interferometers. We produced deep continuum images with RMS noise levels of $\sim400\,μ$Jy~beam$^{-1}$ in band 3 and $\sim200\,μ$Jy~beam$^{-1}$ in band 4. We further generated in-band and broad-band spectral index maps using these images. To establish the robustness of the spectral index measurements, we conducted a detailed analysis using simulated uGMRT data. From the continuum spectral index analysis, we report the unambiguous presence of non-thermal radio emission in the EON region. To investigate its plausible origin, we correlated our results with multiwavelength observations, identifying a strong association between non-thermal emission and outflows from young stellar objects, while also exploring alternative explanations. In future, reliable broad-band radio spectral index measurements, together with dedicated multiwavelength observations, will be invaluable for resolving the origin of non-thermal emission in the Orion Nebula and other star-forming regions.