A first glimpse at the MeerKAT DEEP2 field at <i>S</i>-band
ABSTRACT We present the first wide-field extragalactic continuum catalogue with the MeerKAT S-band (2.5 GHz), of the radio-selected DEEP2 field. The combined image over the S1 (1.96–2.84 GHz) and S4 (2.62–3.50 GHz) sub-bands has an angular resolution of 6.8 arcsec $\times$ 3.6 arcsec (4.0 arcsec $\times$ 2.4 arcsec) at a robust weighting of $R = 0.3$ ($R=-0.5$) and a sensitivity of 4.7 (7.5) µJy beam$^{-1}$ with an on-source integration time of 70 min and a minimum of 52 of the 64 antennas, for respective observations. We present the differential source counts for this field, as well as a morphological comparison of resolved sources between S-band and archival MeerKAT L-band images. We find consistent source counts with the literature and provide spectral indices fitted over a combined frequency range of 1.8 GHz. These observations provide an important first demonstration of the capabilities of MeerKAT S-band imaging with relatively short integration times, as well as a comparison with existing S-band surveys, highlighting the rich scientific potential with future MeerKAT S-band surveys.
Authors
- Sarah Buchner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1691-0215)
- L. S. Legodi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5205-8501)
- Sui Ann Mao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8906-7866)
- S. Ranchod (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0235-8300)
- E D Barr (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8715-9628)
- F. Camilo
- H.-R. Klöckner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0648-2704)
- Roger Deane (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1027-5043)
- Ancor Damas-Segovia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5747-8510)
- O. Wucknitz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8348-4861)
- C. Kasemann
- M. Kramer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4175-2271)
- S. S. Sridhar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7587-4779)
- G. Wieching (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2758-1840)
- I. Rammala (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0224-6579)
- M. R. Rugel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0025-9286)
- J. D. Wagenveld (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1321-0886)
- K. M. Menten (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6459-0669)
Institutions
- University of the Witwatersrand (ZA)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory (US)
- SKA Observatory (GB)
- South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (ZA)
- Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US)
- Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (DE)
- University of Pretoria (ZA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2024-12-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae2754
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.66
Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- California Institute of Technology
- International Max Planck Research School for Environmental, Cellular and Molecular Microbiology
- National Research Foundation
- International Max Planck Research School for Advanced Methods in Process and Systems Engineering