We present a catalog of 1.28 GHz radio filaments observed by MeerKAT over the innermost 200 pc of the Galaxy (roughly ±1.5deg), which includes the central molecular zone (CMZ). The catalog is generated by repurposing software developed for the automated detection of filaments in solar coronal loops. There are two parts to the catalog. The first part, the main catalog, provides a point-by-point listing of locations and basic observational properties along each detected filament. The second part is a summary catalog which provides a listing of mean, median, or total values of various properties for each filament. Tabulated quantities include position, length, curvature, brightness, and spectral index. The catalogs contain a heterogeneous mix of filamentary structures, including nonthermal radio filaments (NRFs), and parts of supernova remnants (SNRs) and thermally emitting regions (e.g. H II regions). We discuss criteria for selecting useful subsamples of filaments from the catalogs, and some of the details encountered in examining filaments or selections of filaments from the catalogs.
@article{arxiv.2510.12491,
title = {A Catalog of Filaments in the Central Molecular Zone},
author = {Richard G. Arendt and F. Yusef-Zadeh and I. Heywood},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.12491},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in ApJS. 12 pages, 7 figures. The full version of Table 2 will be available with the published article. The full version of Table 3 is included as an ancillary file in plain text, machine readable format