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We report the Chandra detection of shock-heated shells of hot gas surroundingthe radio lobes of the nearby (D_L ~ 53 Mpc) low-power radio galaxy NGC 3801.The shells have temperatures of 1 keV and 0.7 keV, compared to an ISMtemperature of 0.23 keV. The estimated expansion speed of the shells is 850km/s, corresponding to a Mach number of ~ 4. This is the second X-ray detectionof strong shocks produced by a low-power radio galaxy, and allows us to measuredirectly the contribution of shock heating to the radio galaxy's totalenergetic input to the ISM. We show that the gas properties of the shells andsurrounding ISM are consistent with the Rankine-Hugoniot shock jump conditions.We estimate the energy stored in the hot gas shells (thermal + kinetic energy)to be 1.7x10^56 ergs, which is equivalent to the thermal energy of the ISMwithin ~11 kpc of the galaxy centre, and a factor of ~25 larger than theinferred PdV work required to inflate the lobe cavities, indicating that energytransfer from the AGN to its environment is dominated by shock heating duringthis stage of radio-source evolution. Our results provide direct evidence thatshock heating in the early supersonic phase of FRI radio-source expansion canhave important long-term effects on the properties of the host galaxy ISM.Finally, we discuss the merger history of NGC 3801, the fuelling of its AGN andthe role of this type of system in feedback models.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Shock Heating in the Nearby Radio Galaxy NGC 3801