The SARAO MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey filamentary source catalogue

TL;DR

This paper presents a catalogue of 933 filamentary radio structures from the MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey, identifying non-thermal filaments outside the Galactic Centre and analyzing their properties and implications for Galactic magnetic fields.

Contribution

The study provides the first extensive catalogue of isolated non-thermal radio filaments outside the Galactic Centre, comparing their properties to those near the GC and exploring magnetic field implications.

Findings

86% of filaments are associated with extended radio structures

59% of isolated filaments are likely non-thermal

GC filaments are narrower and shorter than those in the survey

Abstract

We present a catalogue of filamentary structures identified in the SARAO (South African Radio Astronomy Observatory) MeerKAT 1.3 GHz Galactic Plane Survey (SMGPS). We extract 933 filaments across the survey area, 803 of which (~86%) are associated with extended radio structures (e.g. supernova remnants and HII regions), whilst 130 (~14%) are largely isolated. We classify filaments as thermal or non-thermal via their associated mid-infrared emission and find 77/130 (~59%) of the isolated sources are likely to be non-thermal, and are therefore excellent candidates for the first isolated, non-thermal radio filaments observed outside of the Galactic Centre (GC). Comparing the morphological properties of these non-thermal candidates to the non-thermal filaments observed towards the GC we find the GC filaments are on the whole angularly narrower and shorter than those across the SMGPS, potentially an effect of distance. The SMGPS filaments have flux densities similar to those of the GC, however the distribution of the latter extends to higher flux densities. If the SMGPS filaments were closer than the GC population, it would imply a more energetic population of cosmic ray electrons in the GC. We find the filament position angles in the SMGPS are uniformly distributed, implying that the local magnetic field traced by the filaments does not follow the large-scale Galactic field. Finally, although we have clearly shown that filaments are not unique to the GC, the GC nevertheless has the highest density of filaments in the Milky Way.