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© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

We present the results from a search for high-redshift radio galaxy (HzRG) candidates using 1.28 GHz data in the Abell 2751 field drawn from the MeerKAT Galaxy Cluster Legacy Survey (MGCLS). We used the HzRG criteria that a radio source is undetected in all-sky optical and infrared catalogues and that it has a very steep radio spectrum. We used the likelihood ratio method for cross-matching the radio catalogue against multi-wavelength galaxy catalogues from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) and the All-sky Wide Infrared Survey Explorer (AllWISE). For those radio sources with no multi-wavelength counterpart, we further implemented a radio spectral index criterium of α<1, using in-band spectral index measurements from the wide-band MeerKAT data. Using a 5σ signal-to-noise cut on the radio flux densities, we found a total of 274 HzRG candidates: 179 ultra-steep spectrum sources and 95 potential candidates, which could not be ruled out as they had no spectral information available. The spectral index assignments in this work were complete above a flux density of 0.3 mJy, which is at least an order of magnitude lower than existing studies in this frequency range or when extrapolating from lower frequency limits. Our faintest HzRG candidates with and without an in-band spectral index measurement had a 1.28 GHz flux density of 57 ± 8 μJy and 68 ± 13 μJy, respectively. Although our study is not complete down to these flux densities, our results indicate that the sensitivity and bandwidth of the MGCLS data make them a powerful radio resource to search for HzRG candidates in the Southern sky, with 20 of the MGCLS pointings having similar image quality as the Abell 2751 field and full coverage in both DECaLS and AllWISE. Data at additional radio frequencies will be needed for the faintest source populations, which could be provided in the near future by the MeerKAT UHF band (580–1015 MHz) at a similar resolution (∼8–10″).

Details

Title
Searching for High-z Radio Galaxies with the MGCLS
Author
Knowles, Kenda 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Manaka, Sinah 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Bietenholz, Michael F 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Cotton, William D 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Hilton, Matthew 5 ; Kolokythas, Konstantinos 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; S Ilani Loubser 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Oozeer, Nadeem 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Centre for Radio Astronomy Techniques and Technologies, Department of Physics and Electronics, Rhodes University, Makhanda 6140, South Africa; [email protected]; South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), 2 Fir Street, Cape Town 7925, South Africa; [email protected] (W.D.C.); [email protected] (N.O.) 
 Centre for Radio Astronomy Techniques and Technologies, Department of Physics and Electronics, Rhodes University, Makhanda 6140, South Africa; [email protected] 
 Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory, SARAO, Krugersdorp 1740, South Africa; [email protected]; Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, Toronto, ON M6G 3V5, Canada 
 South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), 2 Fir Street, Cape Town 7925, South Africa; [email protected] (W.D.C.); [email protected] (N.O.); National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA 
 School of Mathematics, Statistics & Computer Science, Westville Campus, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4000, South Africa; [email protected]; Astrophysics Research Centre, Westville Campus, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4000, South Africa 
 Centre for Space Research, North-West University, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa; [email protected] (K.K.); [email protected] (S.I.L.) 
 South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), 2 Fir Street, Cape Town 7925, South Africa; [email protected] (W.D.C.); [email protected] (N.O.); African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, 6–8 Melrose Road, Muizenberg 7945, South Africa 
First page
89
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20754434
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2612767642
Copyright
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.