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ATPMNCAT - Australia Telescope-PMN Catalog of Southern Radio Sources

 HEASARC
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Overview

This table contains a source catalog of 9040 radio sources derived from high-resolution observations of a selection of 8385 Parkes-MIT-NRAO (PMN) sources made with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). The catalog lists flux density and structural measurements at 4.8 and 8.6 GHz, derived from observations of all PMN sources in the declination range -87 degrees < Dec < -38.5 degrees (exclusive of galactic latitudes |b| < 2 degrees) with PMN flux density S4850 > 70mJy (> 50 mJy south of Dec = -73 degrees). The authors assess the quality of the data, which was gathered in the 1992-1994 time period, and the resulting source parameters. They describe the population of catalogued sources, and compare it to samples from complementary catalogs. In particular, they find 122 radio sources with highly probable association with gamma-ray sources observed by the orbiting Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), and 11 more radio sources with possible associations with Fermi LAT sources.

This Australia Telescope PMN (ATPMN) catalog lists the source measurements of flux density, position and structure of a selection of sources from the PMN catalog. Each catalog entry corresponds to a discrete source observed by the ATCA. In many cases, a single PMN source yields several ATPMN sources. Apart from the name of the parent PMN source, there is no indication of physical association: multiple sources in the one field may be aligned by chance, or may be components of the one object.

This catalog contains the following information for each source: position; the flux density at 4.8 and 8.6 GHz; uncertainties in each flux density; the source size modelled as an ellipse (major axes, minor axes, position angle) of the best fit for a Gaussian brightness distribution; the spectral index computed between 4.8 and 8.6 GHz; the uncertainty in the spectral index; a code denoting the epoch of the observation. In the table as given in the original reference, the positions were given with varying degrees of precision, from 0.001 to 1 second of time in RA and from 0.01 to 1 arcsecond in Declination. The authors state in Section 4 of the reference paper that the error in a position coordinate is less than 10 times the final digit given in the coordinate. The positions as displayed in this table do not reflect this system: e.g., a Dec value displayed as '-79 58 34.00' may have been given in the original table as '-79 58 34.00' or '-79 58 34.0' or '-79 58 34'. To recover this information about positional precision the HEASARC has created two additional parameters ra_accuracy and dec_accuracy which list the number of digits after the decimal point given in the original table for the RA and Dec, respectively. Thus, if ra_accuracy = 3, the RA was given to a precision of 0.001 s in the original table, implying that the actual error in RA was less than 10 * 0.001 = 0.01 s.

Catalog Bibcode

2012MNRAS.422.1527M

References

ATPMN: accurate positions and flux densities at 5 and 8 GHz for 8,385 PMN
sources.
    McConnell D., Sadler E.M., Murphy T., Ekers R.D.
    <Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 422, 1527 (2012)>
    =2012MNRAS.422.1527M

Provenance

This table was created by the HEASARC in July 2012 based on CDS Catalog J/MNRAS/422/1527 file atpmncat.dat.

Parameters

Name
The ATPMN source designation, using the designation registered by the authors with the Dictionary of Nomenclature of Celestial Objects, viz., 'ATPMN JHHMMSS.S+DDMMSS'.

Pmn_Name
The PMN source designation of the parent field, using the designation registered with the Dictionary of Nomenclature of Celestial Objects, viz., 'PMN JHHMM+DDMMa'.

RA
The Right Ascension of the ATCA source in the selected equinox. This was given in J2000.0 equatorial coordinates with varying degrees of precision, from 0.001 to 1 second of time, in the original reference. The authors state in Section 4 of the reference paper that the error in a position coordinate is less than 10 times the final digit given in the coordinate. The positions as displayed in this table do not reflect this system: e.g., a Dec value displayed as '-79 58 34.00' may have been given in the original table as '-79 58 34.00' or '-79 58 34.0' or '-79 58 34'. To recover this information about positional precision the HEASARC has created two additional parameters ra_accuracy and dec_accuracy which list the number of digits after the decimal point given in the original table for the RA and Dec, respectively. Thus, if ra_accuracy = 3, the RA was given to a precision of 0.001 s in the original table, implying that the actual error in RA was less than 10 * 0.001 or 0.01 s.

Dec
The Declination of the ATCA source in the selected equinox. This was given in J2000.0 equatorial coordinates with varying degrees of precision, from 0.01 to 1 arcsecond, in the original reference. The authors state in Section 4 of the reference paper that the error in a position coordinate is less than 10 times the final digit given in the coordinate. The positions as displayed in this table do not reflect this system: e.g., a Dec value displayed as '-79 58 34.00' may have been given in the original table as '-79 58 34.00' or '-79 58 34.0' or '-79 58 34'. To recover this information about positional precision the HEASARC has created two additional parameters ra_accuracy and dec_accuracy which list the number of digits after the decimal point given in the original table for the RA and Dec, respectively. Thus, if ra_accuracy = 3, the RA was given to a precision of 0.001 s in the original table, implying that the actual error in RA was less than 10 * 0.001 or 0.01 s.

LII
The Galactic Longitude of the ATCA source.

BII
The Galactic Latitude of the ATCA source.

RA_Accuracy
The number of digits after the decimal point given in the original table for the RA of the source. Thus, if ra_accuracy = 3, the RA was given to a precision of 0.001 s in the original table, implying that the actual error in RA was less than 10 * 0.001 = 0.01 s.

Dec_Accuracy
The number of digits after the decimal point given in the original table for the Declination of the source. Thus, if dec_accuracy = 2, the Declination was given to a precision of 0.01" in the original table, implying that the actual error in Dec was less than 10 * 0.01" = 0.1".

Flux_6_cm
The flux density of the ATCA source at 4.8 GHz, in mJy.

Flux_6_cm_Error
The uncertainty in the flux density of the ATCA source at 4.8 GHz, in mJy.

Flux_3p5_cm
The flux density of the ATCA source at 8.6 GHz, in mJy.

Flux_3p5_cm_Error
The uncertainty in the flux density of the ATCA source at 8.6 GHz, in mJy.

Major_Axis_6_cm
The major axis of the elliptical Gaussian best-fit model to the ATCA source at 4.8 GHz, in arcseconds.

Minor_Axis_6_cm
The minor axis of the elliptical Gaussian best-fit model to the ATCA source at 4.8 GHz, in arcseconds.

Position_Angle_6_cm
The position angle of the major axis of the elliptical Gaussian best-fit model to the ATCA source at 4.8 GHz, in degrees.

Major_Axis_3p5_cm
The major axis of the elliptical Gaussian best-fit model to the ATCA source at 8.6 GHz, in arcseconds.

Minor_Axis_3p5_cm
The minor axis of the elliptical Gaussian best-fit model to the ATCA source at 8.6 GHz, in arcseconds.

Position_Angle_3p5_cm
The position angle of the major axis of the elliptical Gaussian best-fit model to the ATCA source at 8.6 GHz, in degrees.

Spectral_Index
The spectral index Alpha of the ATCA source between 4.8 and 8.6Ghz, defined as Alpha = log(S6/S3 )/log(f6/f3), where the subscripts denote the observing bands at 6 cm (4.8 GHz) and 3.5 cm (8.6 GHz), S is the measured flux density, and f6 = 4.8 GHz and f3 = 8.6 GHz.

Spectral_Index_Error
The calculated uncertainty eAlpha in the spectral index Alpha between 4.8 and 8.6 GHz, defined as e_Alpha = sqrt[(e6/S6)2 + (e3/S3)2]/(log(f6/f3), where the subscripts denote the observing bands at 6 cm (4.8 GHz) and 3.5 cm (8.6 GHz), S is the measured flux density, e is the error in the corresponding flux density, and f6 = 4.8 GHz and f3 = 8.6 GHz.

Obs_Epochs
The epochs of the ATCA observation of the source, coded as follows: 

    Epoch    Dates            Array  Shortest
                                    baseline (m)

       1     1992 Nov 09-15    6A      337
       2     1993 Mar 03-07    6D       76
       3     1993 Jun 11-15    6A      337
       4     1993 Sep 23-26    6D       76
       5     1994 Mar 11-14    6C      153

Fit_Flag
This parameter contains a flag indicating the quality of the model fit to the source, where 0 means OK, i.e., the amplitude of the residual noise after the fitted source components were subtracted from the data is below the threshold indicated in Figure 3 of the reference paper, whereas 1 means that the amplitude of the residual noise is above this threshold.

Hour_Angle_Flag
This parameter contains a flag indicating the hour angle coverage for the radio source. Normally, fields were observed with 3 scans at different hour angles to give 45 visibility measurements. A few fields (166) had less than 20 visibility measurements: these were not included in the processing. A value of 0 for this flag means OK, i.e., there were at least 30 and usually 45 visibility measurements for the source, whereas 1 means that there were only 20 to 30 visibility measurements, i.e., only 2 different hour angles were observed.

Contact Person

Questions regarding the ATPMNCAT database table can be addressed to the HEASARC Help Desk.
Page Author: Browse Software Development Team
Last Modified: Monday, 16-Sep-2024 17:24:53 EDT