VERY LARGE ARRAY 1.4 GHz OBSERVATIONS OF THE GOODS-NORTH FIELD: DATA REDUCTION AND ANALYSIS

Journal Article · Sat May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/188/1/178· OSTI ID:21454861

Morrison, Glenn E ^[1]; Owen, Frazer N ^[2]; Dickinson, Mark ^[3]; Ivison, Rob J; Ibar, Edo ^[4]

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1. Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Manoa, HI 96822 (United States)
2. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, P.O. Box O, Socorro, NM 87801 (United States)
3. National Optical Astronomy Observatory, P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, AZ 85726 (United States)
4. UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ (United Kingdom)

We describe deep, new, wide-field radio continuum observations of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-North field. The resulting map has a synthesized beam size of {approx}1.''7 and an rms noise level of {approx}3.9 {mu}Jy beam{sup -1} near its center and {approx}8 {mu}Jy beam{sup -1} at 15' from phase center. We have cataloged 1230 discrete radio emitters, within a 40' x 40' region, above a 5{sigma} detection threshold of {approx}20 {mu}Jy at the field center. New techniques, pioneered by Owen and Morrison, have enabled us to achieve a dynamic range of 6800:1 in a field that has significantly strong confusing sources. We compare the 1.4 GHz (20 cm) source counts with those from other published radio surveys. Our differential counts are nearly Euclidean below 100 {mu}Jy with a median source diameter of {approx}1.''2. This adds to the evidence presented by Owen and Morrison that the natural confusion limit may lie near 1 {mu}Jy. If the Euclidean slope of the counts continues down to the natural confusion limit as an extrapolation of our log N-log S, this indicates that the cutoff must be fairly sharp below 1 {mu}Jy else the cosmic microwave background temperature would increase above 2.7 K at 1.4 GHz.

• OSTI ID: 21454861
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 188; ISSN 0067-0049; ISSN APJSA2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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