A MeerKAT 1.28 GHz Atlas of Southern Sources in the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample

Abstract

The IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample (RBGS) comprises galaxies and unresolved mergers stronger than $S=5.24$ Jy at $\lambda =60\mu \mathrm{m}$ with galactic latitudes $|b|>5^{\circ }$. Nearly all are dusty star-forming galaxies whose radio continuum and far-infrared luminosities are proportional to their current rates of star formation. We used the MeerKAT array of 64 dishes to make $5\times 3$ min snapshot observations at $\nu =1.28$ GHz covering all 298 southern (J2000 $\delta <0^{\circ }$) RBGS sources identified with external galaxies. The resulting images have $\theta \approx 7.5$ arcsec FHWM resolution and rms fluctuations $\sigma \approx 20\mu {\mathrm{Jy}\mathrm{beam}}^{-1}\approx 0.26$ K, low enough to reveal even faint disk emission. The rms position uncertainties are ${\sigma }_{\alpha }\approx {\sigma }_{\delta }\approx 1$ arcsec relative to accurate near-infrared positions, and the image dynamic ranges are DR $\gtrsim 10^4:1$.

30 pages, 7 figures To be published in the ApJS

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