Source Counts Spanning Eight Decades of Flux Density at 1.4 GHz

Abstract

Brightness-weighted differential source counts $S^{2}n(S)$ spanning the eight decades of flux density between $0.25\mu \mathrm{Jy}$ and 25 Jy at 1.4 GHz were measured from (1) the confusion brightness distribution in the MeerKAT DEEP2 image below $10\mu \mathrm{Jy}$, (2) counts of DEEP2 sources between $10\mu \mathrm{Jy}$ and $2.5\mathrm{mJy}$, and (3) counts of NVSS sources stronger than $2.5\mathrm{mJy}$. We present our DEEP2 catalog of $1.7\times 10^4$ discrete sources complete above $S=10\mu \mathrm{Jy}$ over $\Omega =1.04{\mathrm{deg}}^2$. The brightness-weighted counts converge as $S^{2}n(S)\propto S^{1/2}$ below $S=10\mu \mathrm{Jy}$, so $>99\%$ of the $\Delta T_{\mathrm{b}}\sim 0.06\mathrm{K}$ sky brightness produced by active galactic nuclei and $\approx 96\%$ of the $\Delta T_{\mathrm{b}}\sim 0.04\mathrm{K}$ added by star-forming galaxies has been resolved into sources with $S\ge 0.25\mu \mathrm{Jy}$. The $\Delta T_{\mathrm{b}}\approx 0.4\mathrm{K}$ excess brightness measured by ARCADE 2 cannot be produced by faint sources smaller than $\approx 50\mathrm{kpc}$ if they cluster like galaxies.

19 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

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