The VLA-COSMOS Survey: I. Radio Identifications from the Pilot Project
Abstract
We present a catalog of 246 radio sources found in the central 1 degree of the COSMOS field at 1.4GHz. The VLA pilot project data have a resolution of 1.9"x1.6" and an rms noise limit of ~25-100uJy/beam covering 0.837 sqrdeg. About 20 radio sources are clearly extended and most of them appear to be double-lobed radio galaxies. We find evidence for a cluster of 7 radio sources with an extent of ~10' southeast of the COSMOS field center. This VLA pilot project was undertaken to demonstrate the feasibility of wide-field mosaicking at 2'' resolution at 1.4GHz using the VLA in its A array configuration. The 7-point mosaic data was used to develop the techniques necessary for reduction and analysis. These data will provide the initial astrometric frame for the optical (ground- and space-based) data of the COSMOS 2 sqrdeg survey. In addition, it demonstrates the feasibility of obtaining deep (rms ~ few uJy) radio imaging of this field at 1.4GHz, since the brightest radio emission peak detected within the area covered has a flux density of 13mJy/beam and no strong side-lobes from sources surrounding the COSMOS field were detected. Comparison of the number counts to other deep radio surveys shows that the COSMOS field is a representative deep field in the radio domain.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0408149,
title = {The VLA-COSMOS Survey: I. Radio Identifications from the Pilot Project},
author = {E. Schinnerer and C. L. Carilli and N. Z. Scoville and M. Bondi and P. Ciliegi and P. Vettolani and O. Le Fevre and A. M. Koekemoer and F. Bertoldi and C. D. Impey},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0408149},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
37 pages, 13 figures, accepted by AJ (sched. for November issue), for information and data see: http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~eschinne/cosmos/cosmos.html