Williams, G.M., Thompson, M.A. orcid.org/0000-0001-5392-909X, Mutale, M. et al. (11 more authors) (2025) The SARAO MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey filamentary source catalogue. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 536 (2). pp. 1428-1445. ISSN 0035-8711
Abstract
We present a catalogue of filamentary structures identified in the SARAO (South African Radio Astronomy Observatory) MeerKAT 1.3 GHz Galactic Plane Survey (SMGPS).We extract 933 filaments acrossthe survey area, 803 of which (∼86 per cent) are associated with extended radio structures (e.g. supernova remnants and H II regions), while 130 (∼14 per cent) are largely isolated. We classify filaments as thermal or non-thermal via their associated mid-infrared emission and find that 77/130 (∼59 per cent) of the isolated sources are likely to be non-thermal, and are therefore excellent candidates for the first isolated, non-thermal radio filaments observed outside of the Galactic Centre (GC). Comparing the morphological properties of these non-thermal candidates to the non-thermal filaments observed towards the GC, we find that the GC filaments are on the whole angularly narrower and shorter than those across the SMGPS, potentially an effect of distance. The SMGPS filaments have flux densities similar to those of the GC; however, the distribution of the latter extends to higher flux densities. If the SMGPS filaments were closer than the GC population, it would imply a more energetic population of cosmic ray electrons in the GC. We find that the filament position angles in the SMGPS are uniformly distributed, implying that the local magnetic field traced by the filaments does not follow the large-scale Galactic field. Finally, although we have clearly shown that filaments are not unique to the GC, the GC nevertheless has the highest density of filaments in the Milky Way.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | techniques: interferometric, catalogues, surveys, ISM: structure, Galaxy: structure, radio continuum: ISM |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Astrophysics (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number STFC (Science and Technology Facilities Council) ST/W00125X/1 STFC (Science and Technology Facilities Council) ST/X001016/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 10 Jan 2025 12:54 |
Last Modified: | 10 Jan 2025 12:54 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/mnras/stae2690 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:221583 |