The 1.28 GHz MeerKAT DEEP2 Image
Creators: name: Mauch, T.
name: Cotton, W. D.
name: Condon, J. J.
name: Matthews, A. M.
name: Abbott, T. D.
name: Adam, R. M.
name: Aldera, M. A.
name: Asad, K. M. B.
name: Bauermeister, E. F.
name: Bennett, T. G. H.
name: Bester, H.
name: Botha, D. H.
name: Brederode, L. R. S.
name: Brits, Z. B.
name: Buchner, S. J.
name: Burger, J. P.
name: Camilo, F.
name: Chalmers, J. M.
name: Cheetham, T.
name: de Villiers, D.
name: de Villiers, M. S.
name: Dikgale-Mahlakoana, M. A.
name: Toit, L. J. du
name: Esterhuyse, S. W. P.
name: Fadana, G.
name: Fanaroff, B. L.
name: Fataar, S.
name: February, S.
name: Frank, B. S.
name: Gamatham, R. R. G.
name: Geyer, M.
name: Goedhart, S.
name: Gounden, S.
name: Gumede, S. C.
name: Heywood, I.
name: Hlakola, M. J.
name: Horrell, J. M. G.
name: Hugo, B.
name: Isaacson, A. R.
name: Józsa, G. I. G.
name: Jonas, J. L.
name: Julie, R. P. M.
name: Kapp, F. B.
name: Kasper, V. A.
name: Kenyon, J. S.
name: Kotzé, P. P. A.
name: Kriek, N.
name: Kriel, H.
name: Kusel, T. W.
name: Lehmensiek, R.
name: Loots, A.
name: Lord, R. T.
name: Lunsky, B. M.
name: Madisa, K.
name: Magnus, L. G.
name: Main, J. P. L.
name: Malan, J. A.
name: Manley, J. R.
name: Marais, S. J.
name: Martens, A.
name: Merry, B.
name: Millenaar, R.
name: Mnyandu, N.
name: Moeng, I. P. T.
name: Mokone, O. J.
name: Monama, T. E.
name: Mphego, M. C.
name: New, W. S.
name: Ngcebetsha, B.
name: Ngoasheng, K. J.
name: Ockards, M. T. O.
name: Oozeer, N.
name: Otto, A. J.
name: Patel, A. A.
name: Peens-Hough, A.
name: Perkins, S. J.
name: Ramaila, A. J. T.
name: Ramudzuli, Z. R.
name: Renil, R.
name: Richter, L. L.
name: Robyntjies, A.
name: Salie, S.
name: Schollar, C. T. G.
name: Schwardt, L. C.
name: Serylak, M.
name: Siebrits, R.
name: Sirothia, S. K.
name: Smirnov, O. M.
name: Sofeya, L.
name: Stone, G.
name: Taljaard, B.
name: Tasse, C.
name: Theron, I. P.
name: Tiplady, A. J.
name: Toruvanda, O.
name: Twum, S. N.
name: van Balla, T. J.
name: van der Byl, A.
name: van der Merwe, C.
name: Van Tonder, V.
name: Wallace, B. H.
name: Welz, M. G.
name: Williams, L. P.
name: Xaia, B.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We present the confusion-limited 1.28 GHz MeerKAT DEEP2 image covering one $\approx 68'$ FWHM primary beam area with $7.6''$ FWHM resolution and $0.55 \pm 0.01$ $μ$Jy/beam rms noise. Its J2000 center position $α=04^h 13^m 26.4^s$, $δ=-80^\circ 00' 00''$ was selected to minimize artifacts caused by bright sources. We introduce the new 64-element MeerKAT array and describe commissioning observations to measure the primary beam attenuation pattern, estimate telescope pointing errors, and pinpoint $(u,v)$ coordinate errors caused by offsets in frequency or time. We constructed a 1.4 GHz differential source count by combining a power-law count fit to the DEEP2 confusion $P(D)$ distribution from $0.25$ to $10$ $μ$Jy with counts of individual DEEP2 sources between $10$ $μ$Jy and $2.5$ mJy. Most sources fainter than $S \sim 100$ $μ$Jy are distant star-forming galaxies obeying the FIR/radio correlation, and sources stronger than $0.25$ $μ$Jy account for $\sim93\%$ of the radio background produced by star-forming galaxies. For the first time, the DEEP2 source count has reached the depth needed to reveal the majority of the star formation history of the universe. A pure luminosity evolution of the 1.4 GHz local luminosity function consistent with the Madau &amp; Dickinson (2014) model for the evolution of star-forming galaxies based on UV and infrared data underpredicts our 1.4 GHz source count in the range $-5 \lesssim \log[S(\mathrm{Jy})] \lesssim -4$.
description: 20 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ