1. The MAVERIC survey: a catalogue of radio sources in southern globular clusters from the Australia Telescope Compact Array
- Author
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Vlad Tudor, James C A Miller-Jones, Jay Strader, Arash Bahramian, Laura Shishkovsky, Richard M Plotkin, Laura Chomiuk, Craig O Heinke, Thomas J Maccarone, Gregory R Sivakoff, Evangelia Tremou, Gemma E Anderson, Thomas D Russell, and Anastasios K Tzioumis
- Subjects
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) ,Space and Planetary Science ,Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics - Abstract
Radio continuum observations offer a new window on compact objects in globular clusters compared to typical X-ray or optical studies. As part of the MAVERIC survey, we have used the Australia Telescope Compact Array to carry out a deep (median central noise level of approximately 4 microJy per beam) radio continuum survey of 26 southern globular clusters at central frequencies of 5.5 and 9.0 GHz. This paper presents a catalogue of 1285 radio continuum sources in the fields of these 26 clusters. Considering the surface density of background sources, we find significant evidence for a population of radio sources in seven of the 26 clusters, and also identify at least 11 previously known compact objects (6 pulsars and 5 X-ray binaries). While the overall density of radio continuum sources with 7.25-GHz flux densities greater than about 20 microJy in typical globular clusters is relatively low, the survey has already led to the discovery of several exciting compact binaries, including a candidate ultracompact black hole X-ray binary in 47 Tuc. Many of the unclassified radio sources near the centres of the clusters are likely to be true cluster sources, and multi-wavelength follow-up will be necessary to classify these objects and better understand the demographics of accreting compact binaries in globular clusters., 16 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS
- Published
- 2022