MeerKAT Science: On the Pathway to the SKA

MeerKAT is a next generation radio telescope under construction on the African SKA central site in the Karoo plateau of South Africa. When completed in 2018 MeerKAT will be a 64-element array of 13.5-m parabolic antennas distributed over an area with a diameter of 8 km. With a combination of wide bandwidth and field of view, with the large number of antennas and total collecting area, MeerKAT will be one of the world’s most powerful imaging telescopes operating at GHz frequencies.

MeerKAT is a science and technology precursor of the SKA mid-frequency dish array, and following several years of operation as a South African telescope will be incorporated into the SKA phase-one facility. The MeerKAT science program will consist of a combination of key science, legacy-style, large survey projects, and smaller projects based on proposals for open time. This workshop, which took place in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape, was held to discuss and plan the broad range of scientific investigations that will be undertaken during the pre-SKA phase of MeerKAT. Topics covered included:

technical development and roll out of the MeerKAT science capabilities,

details of the large survey projects presented by the project teams,

science program concepts for open time,

commensal programs such as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence,

and the impact of MeerKAT on global Very Long Baseline Interferometry.

Editorial Board

Russ Taylor (chairman)

Fernando Camilo

Lerothodi Leeuw

Kavilan Moodley

Sessions
The MeerKAT Telescope
MeerKAT Large Survey Projects
MeerKAT Science beyond Surveys
Posters

The MeerKAT Telescope
The MeerKAT Radio Telescope PoS(MeerKAT2016)001 pdf J. Jonas and the MeerKAT Team
The MeerKAT Max-Planck S-band System PoS(MeerKAT2016)003 pdf M. Kramer, K. Menten, E.D. Barr, R. Karuppusamy, C. Kasemann, B. Klein, E. Ros, G. Wieching and O. Wucknitz
MeerKAT Large Survey Projects
LADUMA: Looking at the Distant Universe with the MeerKAT Array PoS(MeerKAT2016)004 pdf S. Blyth, A.J. Baker, B. Holwerda, A. Bouchard, B. Catinella, L. Chemin, D. Cunnama, R. Davé, A. Faltenbacher, S. February, X. Fernández, E. Gawiser, I. Heywood, D. Kereš, H.R. Klöckner, P. Lah, M. Lochner, N. Maddox, S. Makhathini, K. Moodley, R. Morganti, D. Obreschkow, S.H. Oh, D.J. Pisano, A. Popping, G. Popping, S. Ravindranath, E. Schinnerer, K. Sheth, R. Skelton, M. Smith, R. Srianand, L. Staveley-Smith, M. Vaccari, P. Vaisanen, F. Walter, S. Rawlings, B.A. Bassett, M.A. Bershady, F.H. Briggs, S.M. Crawford, C.M. Cress, J.K. Darling, R. Deane, G. de Blok, E.C. Elson, B.S. Frank, P.A. Henning, K.M. Hess, J.P. Hughes, M.J. Jarvis, S.J. Kannappan, N.S. Katz, R.C. Kraan-Korteweg, M.D. Lehnert, A.K. Leroy, G.R. Meurer, M.J. Meyer, D.J. Pisano, A.C. Schröder, O.M. Smirnov, R.S. Somerville, I.M. Stewart, K.J. van der Heyden, M.A.W. Verheijen, E.M. Wilcots, T.B. Williams, P.A. Woudt, J.F. Wu, M.A. Zwaan, J.T.L. Zwart, T.A. Oosterloo and W. van Drie
The MeerKAT International GHz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration (MIGHTEE) Survey PoS(MeerKAT2016)006 pdf M. Jarvis, R. Taylor, I. Agudo, J.R. Allison, R. Deane, B. Frank, N. Gupta, I. Heywood, N. Maddox, K. McAlpine, M. Santos, A.M.M. Scaife, M. Vaccari, J.T.L. Zwart, E.A.K. Adams, D.J. Bacon, A.J. Baker, B.A. Bassett, P.N. Best, R.J. Beswick, S. Blyth, M.L. Brown, M. Bruggen, M. Cluver, S. Colafrancesco, G. Cotter, C. Cress, R. Davé, C. Ferrari, M.J. Hardcastle, C.L. Hale, I. Harrison, P.W. Hatfield, H.R. Klockner, S. Kolwa, E. Malefahlo, T. Marubini, T. Mauch, K. Moodley, R. Morganti, R.P. Norris, J.A. Peters, I. Prandoni, M. Prescott, S. Oliver, N. Oozeer, H.J.A. Rottgering, N. Seymour, C. Simpson, O. Smirnov and D.J.B. Smith
An Overview of the MHONGOOSE Survey: Observing Nearby Galaxies with MeerKAT PoS(MeerKAT2016)007 pdf W.J.G. de Blok, E.A.K. Adams, P. Amram, E. Athanassoula, I. Bagetakos, C. Balkowski, M.A. Bershady, R.J. Beswick, F. Bigiel, S.L. Blyth, A. Bosma, R.S. Booth, A. Bouchard, E. Brinks, C. Carignan, L. Chemin, F. Combes, J. Conway, E.C. Elson, J. English, B. Epinat, B.S. Frank, J. Fiege, F. Fraternali, J.S. Gallagher, B.K. Gibson, G. Heald, P.A. Henning, B.W. Holwerda, T.H. Jarrett, H. Jerjen, G.I. Józsa, M. Kapala, H.R. Klöckner, B.S. Koribalski, R.C. Kraan-Korteweg, S. Leon, A. Leroy, S.I. Loubser, D.M. Lucero, S.S. McGaugh, G.R. Meurer, M. Meyer, M. Mogotsi, B. Namumba, S.H. Oh, T.A. Oosterloo, D.J. Pisano, A. Popping, S. Ratcliffe, J.A. Sellwood, E. Schinnerer, A.C. Schröder, K. Sheth, M.W.L. Smith, A. Sorgho, K. Spekkens, S. Stanimirovic, K.J. van der Heyden, L. Verdes-Montenegro, W. van Driel, F. Walter, T. Westmeier, E. Wilcots, T. Williams, O.I. Wong, P.A. Woudt and A. Zijlstra
The MeerKAT Fornax Survey PoS(MeerKAT2016)008 pdf P. Serra, W.J.G. de Blok, G.L. Bryan, S. Colafrancesco, R.J. Dettmar, B.S. Frank, F. Govoni, G.I.G. Jozsa, R.C. Kraan-Korteweg, F.M. Maccagni, S.I. Loubser, M. Murgia, T.A. Oosterloo, R.F. Peletier, R. Pizzo, L. Richter, M. Ramatsoku, M.W.L. Smith, S.C. Trager, J.H. van Gorkom and M.A.W. Verheijen
An Update on TRAPUM PoS(MeerKAT2016)009 pdf B. Stappers and M. Kramer
MeerTRAP: Real Time Commensal Searching for Transients and Pulsars with MeerKAT PoS(MeerKAT2016)010 pdf B. Stappers
MeerTime - the MeerKAT Key Science Program on Pulsar Timing PoS(MeerKAT2016)011 pdf M. Bailes, E. Barr, N.D.R. Bhat, J. Brink, S. Buchner, M. Burgay, F. Camilo, D. Champion, J. Hessels, A. Jameson, S. Johnston, A. Karastergiou, R. Karuppusamy, V. Kaspi, M. Keith, M. Kramer, M. McLaughlin, K. Moodley, S. Oslowski, A. Possenti, S. Ransom, F. Rasio, J. Sievers, M. Serylak, B. Stappers, I. Stairs, G. Theureau, J. van Leeuwen, P. Weltevrede and N. Wex
ThunderKAT: The MeerKAT Large Survey Project for Image-Plane Radio Transients PoS(MeerKAT2016)013 pdf P.A. Woudt, R. Fender, S. Corbel, M. Coriat, F. Daigne, H. Falcke, J. Girard, I. Heywood, A. Horesh, J. Horrell, P.G. Jonker, T. Joseph, A. Kamble, C. Knigge, E. Körding, M. Kotze, C. Kouveliotou, C. Lynch, T. Maccarone, P. Meintjes, S. Migliari, T. Murphy, T. Nagayama, G. Nelemans, G. Nicholson, T. O’Brien, A. Oodendaal, N. Oozeer, J. Osborne, M. Perez-Torres, S. Ratcliffe, V.A.R.M. Ribeiro, E. Rol, A. Rushton, A. Scaife, M. Schurch, G. Sivakoff, T. Staley, D. Steeghs, I. Stewart, J.D. Swinbank, S. Vergani, B. Warner, K. Wiersema, R. Armstrong, P. Groot, V. McBride, J.C.A. Miller-Jones, K. Mooley, B. Stappers, R.A.M.J. Wijers, M. Bietenholz, S. Blyth, M. Böttcher, D. Buckley, P. Charles, L. Chomiuk, D. Coppejans, W.J.G. de Blok, K. van der Heyden, A. van der Horst and B. van Soelen
The MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (MALS) PoS(MeerKAT2016)014 pdf N. Gupta, R. Srianand, W. Baan, A.J. Baker, R.J. Beswick, S. Bhatnagar, D. Bhattacharya, A. Bosma, C. Carilli, M. Cluver, F. Combes, C. Cress, R. Dutta, J. Fynbo, G. Heald, M. Hilton, T. Hussain, M. Jarvis, G. Jozsa, P. Kamphuis, A. Kembhavi, J. Kerp, H.R. Kloeckner, J. Krogager, V.P. Kulkarni, C. Ledoux, A. Mahabal, T. Mauch, K. Moodley, E. Momjian, R. Morganti, P. Noterdaeme, T. Oosterloo, P. Petitjean, A. Schroeder, P. Serra, J. Sievers, K. Spekkens, P. Vaisanen, T. van der Hulst, M. Vivek, J. Wang, O. Ivy Wong and A.R. Zungu
MeerGAL: the MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey PoS(MeerKAT2016)015 pdf M. Thompson, S. Goedhart, S. Goedhart, P. Benaglia, H. Beuther, R. Blomme, A.C. Chrysostomou, J.S. Clark, C. Dickinson, S. Ellingsen, D. Fenech, L. Hindson, S.N. Longmore, H.J. van Langevelde, G. MacLeod, S. Molinari, R. Prinja, C.R. Purcell, I. Stevens, G. Umana, J.S. Urquhart, W. Vlemmings, A.J. Walsh, A.Y. Yang and A. Zijlstra
MeerKAT Science beyond Surveys
From Feast To Famine: the Role of HI in Group Evolution PoS(MeerKAT2016)022 pdf M. Cluver, L.L. Verdes-Montenegro and K.M. Hess
MeerKAT and the Smallest Galaxies PoS(MeerKAT2016)023 pdf E.A.K. Adams and T. Oosterloo
Blue Early Type Galaxies with the MeerKAT PoS(MeerKAT2016)024 pdf G.I.G. Jozsa, T. Mauch, O. Ivy Wong, K. Schawinski, C. Sengupta, K. Masters, C.M. Urry, C. Lintott, B. Simmons, S. Kaviraj and P. Kamphuis
MUFASA: Simulations of Galaxy Formation for MeerKAT Science PoS(MeerKAT2016)025 pdf R. Davé and M. Rafieferantsoa
Gravitationally Lensed H I with MeerKAT PoS(MeerKAT2016)029 pdf R. Deane, D. Obreschkow and I. Heywood
MERGHERS: An SZ-selected cluster survey with MeerKAT PoS(MeerKAT2016)030 pdf K. Knowles, A.J. Baker, K. Basu, V. Bharadwaj, F. de Gasperin, R. Deane, M. Devlin, S. Dicker, C. Ferrari, M. Hilton, J.P. Hughes, H. Intema, S. Makhathini, K. Moodley, N. Oozeer, C. Pfrommer, J. Sievers, S.P. Sikhosana, O. Smirnov, M.W. Sommer, S. Stanchfield, K. van der Heyden and J. Zwart
A MeerKAT View on Galaxy Clusters PoS(MeerKAT2016)031 pdf G. Bernardi, T. Venturi, R. Cassano, G. Brunetti, D. Dallacasa, B. Fanaroff, B. Hugo, S. Makhatini, N. Oozeer, O. Smirnov and J. Zwart
Extragalactic VLBI surveys in the MeerKAT era PoS(MeerKAT2016)017 pdf R. Deane
A Large Sky Survey with MeerKAT PoS(MeerKAT2016)032 pdf M. Santos, P. Bull, S. Camera, S. Chen, J. Fonseca, I. Heywood, M. Hilton, M. Jarvis, G.I.G. Jozsa, K. Knowles, L. Leeuw, R. Maartens, E. Malefahlo, K. McAlpine, K. Moodley, P. Patel, A. Pourtsidou, M. Prescott, K. Spekkens, R. Taylor, A. Witzemann and I.H. Whittam
All-sky radio SETI PoS(MeerKAT2016)020 pdf M.A. Garrett, A. Siemion and W. Vancapellen
Galactic and Local Universe VLBI With MeerKAT PoS(MeerKAT2016)018 pdf G. MacLeod and M. Bietenholz
Towards a Full Census of the Obscure(d) Vela Supercluster using MeerKAT PoS(MeerKAT2016)021 pdf R.C. Kraan-Korteweg, E. Elson, S. Blyth, C. Carignan, B.S. Frank, T. Jarrett, M.E. Cluver, P. Serra and G.I.G. Jozsa
Posters
Detecting the Magnetic Cosmic Web through Deep Radio Polarization Imaging PoS(MeerKAT2016)033 pdf L. Hunt, R. Taylor and K. van der Heyden
[CII] as a star formation rate tracer in M31: Is [CII]/TIR the best photoelectric heating efficiency proxy? PoS(MeerKAT2016)034 pdf M. Kapala, B. Groves, K. Sandstrom, T. Jarrett and S. Glover
Polarization study of the pulsars in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae PoS(MeerKAT2016)036 pdf A. Possenti, F. Abbate, C. Tiburzi, W. van Straten, E. Barr, A. Ridolfi and P. Freire
HI Intensity Mapping with MeerKAT PoS(MeerKAT2016)037 pdf A. Pourtsidou