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M. Glowacki

Publications and source records attributed to M. Glowacki.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

A PINK update: Improvements to the CELEBI fast radio burst data reduction and analysis pipeline

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) which are well localised ($<$1") to their host galaxy are tools for studying cosmology and the intergalactic medium. Furthermore, high-time resolution datasets of their polarisation properties can enable testing of the numerous models on their potential progenitors. To that end, the CELEBI (CRAFT Effortless Localisation and Enhanced Burst Inspection) pipeline was conceived to enable data reduction from raw antenna voltages to detect fast radio transient events, localise them to sub-arcsecond precision, and produce polarimetric data at time resolutions as fine as 3 ns. Here we present a slew of updates to the CELEBI pipeline. Improvements to the astrometry correction for FRB localisations have aided our ability to determine what part of a galaxy more nearby FRBs have occurred in, which can have its own implication on the progenitor. We also have implemented time and frequency gating on detected fast transients to enable a boost to signal-to-noise, particularly useful for high dispersion measure or faint fast radio transients. We give examples of our improvements to the localisation, including for the currently 'hostless' FRB 20251019A. The polarisation calibration process has been overhauled, resulting in much more accurate measurements of derived polarisation fraction and rotation measures. Furthermore, we now have incorporated tools for structure-maximisation of the dispersion measure of fast radio transients, a software container which enables the installation of CELEBI on other machines, and improved the pipeline efficiency. Together these updates (named 'Polarisation and astrometry Improvements for New Knowledge', or PINK) greatly improve our ability to keep up with the expected detection rate from the CRAFT COherent (CRACO) upgrade to the real-time fast transient detection system of the Australian SKA Pathfinder.

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One sightline, many systems: a FLASH discovery of HI towards scintillating quasar PKS 0405-385

We report the discovery of an intervening 21\,cm absorption line at z = 0.882 towards the z = 1.284 quasar PKS 0405-385, identified in the First Large Absorption Survey in HI (FLASH). This quasar once displayed the most rapid known intraday variability at radio frequencies, from which it earned the title of `the smallest radio quasar'. Although its size was revised upwards soon after based on updated scattering theory, PKS 0405-385 remains an important probe of Galactic plasma, and now also of intervening gas discovered through HI absorption. We present new long-slit spectroscopy spanning both PKS 0405-385 and the candidate host of the intervening HI gas. We identify MgII and FeII absorption lines in this spectrum consistent with the redshift of the intervening HI, as well as two additional, independent metal-line systems at z = 0.907 and z = 0.966, but we cannot accurately pinpoint the host(s) of this intervening gas in current data. We revisit the radio variability of PKS 0405-385 in light of advances in scintillation theory, as well as extended monitoring with the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Australian SKA Pathfinder, and find a revised linear size >0.3 pc, but no new evidence of repeating intraday variability.

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MIGHTEE-HI: Mass Models and Dark Matter properties

Measuring galaxy rotation curves is critical for inferring the properties of dark-matter haloes in the Lambda Cold Dark Matter ($\Lambda$CDM) paradigm. We present HI rotation curves and mass models for 20 galaxies from the MIGHTEE survey. Using extended HI kinematics, we construct resolved mass models that include stellar, gaseous, and dark-matter components. Stellar masses are derived using 3.6 $\mu$m imaging under fixed mass-to-light ratio ($\Upsilon_{*} = M/L$) assumptions and are complemented, for the first time for a HI-selected sample, by spatially resolved $M/L$, obtained from multi-wavelength SED fitting. We examine the ratio of baryonic to observed rotation velocity ($V_{\rm bar}/V_{\rm obs}$) at the characteristic radius $R_{2.2}$. Adopting a fixed $\Upsilon_\star = 0.5\,M_\odot/L_\odot$ yields a clear dependence of $V_{2.2}/V_{\rm obs}$ on galaxy luminosity, while adopting $\Upsilon_\star = 0.2\,M_\odot/L_\odot$ substantially weakens this trend. In contrast, the resolved $M/L$ analysis preserves the luminosity dependence while modifying the stellar contribution on a galaxy-by-galaxy basis, providing a more accurate representation of the underlying relation. We model the dark-matter haloes using Navarro-Frenk-White profiles and find that the different assumptions for a fixed a $M/L$ systematically shift galaxies relative to the theoretical stellar-to-halo mass and baryonic-to-halo mass relations, while the spatially varying $M/L$ yields the closest agreement with theoretical benchmarks within $\Lambda$CDM. We therefore demonstrate that future investigations of the dark matter properties of galaxies using rotation curves need to account for varying $M/L$ across individual galaxy profiles and between galaxies in order to obtain accurate measurements of the dark matter, and therefore test $\Lambda$CDM.

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Estimation of intrinsic fast radio burst width and scattering distributions from CRAFT data

The intrinsic width and scattering distributions of fast radio bursts (FRBs) inform on their emission mechanism and local environment, and act as a source of detection bias and, hence, an obfuscating factor when performing FRB population and cosmological studies. Here, we utilise a sample of 29 FRBs with measured high-time-resolution properties and known redshift, which were detected using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) by the Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients Survey (CRAFT), to model these distributions. Using this sample, we estimate the completeness bias of intrinsic width and scattering measurements, and fit the underlying, de-biased distributions in the host rest-frame. In no case do our model fits prefer a down-turn at high values of the intrinsic distributions of either parameter in the 0.01-40 ms range probed by the data. Rather, when assuming a spectral scattering index of $\alpha = -4$, we find that the intrinsic scattering distribution at 1\,GHz is consistent with a log-uniform distribution above 0.04 ms, and that this functional form is strongly favoured over the lognormal descriptions used by previous works. We also find that the intrinsic width distribution rises as a Gaussian in log-space in the 0.03-0.3 ms range, with a log-uniform distribution above that slightly preferred to a lognormal distribution. This confirms previous works suggesting that FRB observations are currently strongly width- and scattering-limited, and we encourage FRB searches to be extended to higher values of time-width. It also implies a bias in FRB host galaxy studies, although the form of that bias is uncertain. Finally, we find that our updated width and scattering models - when implemented in the zDM code - produce $\sim$10% more FRBs at redshift z=1 than at z=0 when compared to alternative width/scattering models.

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A 15 Mpc rotating galaxy filament at redshift z = 0.032

Understanding the cold atomic hydrogen gas (HI) within cosmic filaments has the potential to pin down the relationship between the low density gas in the cosmic web and how the galaxies that lie within it grow using this material. We report the discovery of a cosmic filament using 14 HI-selected galaxies that form a very thin elongated structure of 1.7 Mpc. These galaxies are embedded within a much larger cosmic web filament, traced by optical galaxies, that spans at least $\sim 15$~Mpc. We find that the spin axes of the HI galaxies are significantly more strongly aligned with the cosmic web filament ($\langle\lvert \cos \psi \rvert\rangle = 0.64 \pm 0.05$) than cosmological simulations predict, with the optically-selected galaxies showing alignment to a lesser degree ($\langle\lvert \cos \psi \rvert\rangle = 0.55 \pm 0.05$). This structure demonstrates that within the cosmic filament, the angular momentum of galaxies is closely connected to the large-scale filamentary structure. We also find strong evidence that the galaxies are orbiting around the spine of the filament, making this one of the largest rotating structures discovered thus far, and from which we can infer that there is transfer of angular momentum from the filament to the individual galaxies. The abundance of HI galaxies along the filament and the low dynamical temperature of the galaxies within the filament indicates that this filament is at an early evolutionary stage where the imprint of cosmic matter flow on galaxies has been preserved over cosmic time.

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Atomic hydrogen reservoirs in quiescent galaxies at z = 0.4

Context. Based on Local Universe observations, quiescent galaxies (QGs) host lower to no HI compared to star-forming galaxies (SFGs), but no constraints have been derived so far at higher redshift (z>0.1). Understanding whether QGs can retain significant HI reservoirs at higher z is crucial to refine quenching and gas accretion models and to constrain overall star formation efficiency at different epochs. Aims. We aim to probe HI in candidate QGs at intermediate redshifts (z=0.36) and to understand whether there exists a class of QGs retaining consistent HI reservoirs and which parameters (dust content, stellar mass, Dn4000, morphology, environment) effectively capture HI-rich QGs. Methods. We perform 21-cm spectral line stacking on MIGHTEE-HI data at z=0.36, targeting two different samples of QGs, defined by means of a color-selection criterion and a spectroscopic criterion based on Dn4000, respectively. We also perform stacking on subsamples of the spectroscopically-selected quiescent sample to investigate the correlation between the HI content and other galaxy properties. Results. We find that QGs with an IR counterpart (i.e., dusty galaxies) are found to host a substantial HI content, on average just 40% lower than SFGs. In contrast, color-selected QGs still hold HI, but lower than SFGs by a factor 3. Among dusty objects, we find morphology to have a mild impact on the atomic gas content, with spirals hosting approximately 15-30% more HI than spheroids. Environmental effects are also present, with low-density regions hosting galaxies that are HI-richer than in high-density ones, by approximately 30% for spirals and 60% for spheroids. We suggest that, in general, HI content is driven by several factors, including quenching mechanisms and ISM enrichment processes. Also, quiescent galaxies - and especially dusty systems - seem to yield HI more consistently than in the Local Universe.

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An investigation into correlations between FRB and host galaxy properties

Impulsive radio signals such as fast radio bursts (FRBs) are imprinted with the signatures of multi-path propagation through ionised media in the form of frequency-dependent temporal broadening of the pulse profile (scattering). The dominant source of scattering for most FRBs is expected to be within their host galaxies, an assumption which can be tested by examining potential correlations between properties of the FRBs and global properties of their hosts. Using results from the CRAFT survey, we investigate correlations across a range of host galaxy properties against attributes of the FRB that encode propagation effects: scattering timescale tau, polarisation fractions, and absolute Faraday rotation measure. From 21 host galaxy properties considered, we find three correlated with tau, including the stellar surface density (or compactness; Pearson p-value p = 0.002 and Spearman p = 0.010), mass-weighted age (Spearman p-value p = 0.009), and a weaker correlation with gas-phase metallicity (Spearman p = 0.017). Weakly significant correlations are also found with Halpha equivalent widths and gravitational potential. From 10,000 trials of reshuffled datasets, we expect 2 strong Spearman correlations only 2% of the time, and three weaker correlations in 6.6% of cases. Compact host galaxies may have more ionised content which scatters the FRB further. No correlation is seen with host galaxy inclination, which weakens the case for an inclination bias, as previously suggested for samples of localised FRBs. A strong (p = 0.002) correlation is found for absolute rotation measure with optical disc axis ratio b/a; greater rotation measures are seen for edge-on host galaxies. Further high-time resolution FRB detections, coupled with localisation and detailed follow-up on their host galaxies, are necessary to corroborate these initial findings and shed further light into the FRB mechanism.

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A nanosecond-duration radio pulse originating from the defunct Relay 2 satellite

We report the detection of a burst of emission over a 695.5 MHz-1031.5 MHz bandwidth by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, ASKAP. The burst was localised through analysis of near-field time delays to the long-decommissioned Relay 2 satellite, and exhibited a dispersion measure of $2.26 \cdot 10^{-5}$ pc cm$^{-3}$ -- 69.7 TECU, consistent with expectations for a single pass through the ionosphere. After coherent dedispersion, the burst was determined to be less than 30 ns in width, with an average flux density of at least 300 kJy. We consider an electrostatic discharge (ESD) or plasma discharge following a micrometeoroid impact to be plausible explanations for the burst. ESDs have previously been observed with the Arecibo radio telescope, but on 1000 times longer timescales. Our observation opens new possibilities for the remote sensing of ESD, which poses a serious threat to spacecraft, and reveals a new source of false events for observations of astrophysical transients.

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High-time-resolution properties of 35 fast radio bursts detected by the Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients Survey

We present microsecond-resolution, coherently-dedispersed, polarimetric measurements of 35 fast radio bursts (FRBs) detected during the Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients (CRAFT) incoherent sum (ICS) survey with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). We find a wide diversity of time-frequency morphology and polarisation properties broadly consistent with those of currently known non-repeating FRBs. The high S/N and fine time-resolution of our data however reveals a wealth of new information. Key results include (i) the distribution of scattering timescales, ${\tau}_{obs}$, is limited purely by instrumental effects, with no downturn at high ${\tau}_{obs}$ as expected from a log-normal distribution; (ii) for the 29 FRBs with known redshift, there is no detectable correlation between $\tau_{obs}$ and dispersion measure (DM) fluctuations about the Macquart relation, in contrast to expectations from pulsar scattering-DM relations; (iii) all FRBs probably have multiple components, and at least a large fraction have variable PA, the identification of which is limited by scattering; (iv) at least half of all FRBs exhibit PA microstructure at 200 ${\mu}s$-200 ns timescales, with behaviour most closely resembling a sub-category of Crab main pulses; (v) that there is a break in the FRB circular polarisation distribution at Stokes V $\gtrsim$ 20%, which is suggestive of a discrete sub-population.

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The emission of interpulses by a 6.45-hour period coherent radio transient

Long-period radio transients are a novel class of astronomical objects characterised by prolonged periods ranging from 18 minutes to 54 minutes. They exhibit highly polarised, coherent, beamed radio emission lasting only 10--100 seconds. The intrinsic nature of these objects is subject to speculation, with highly magnetised white dwarfs and neutron stars being the prevailing candidates. Here we present ASKAP J183950.5-075635.0 (hereafter, ASKAP J1839-0756), boasting the longest known period of this class at 6.45 hours. It exhibits emission characteristics of an ordered dipolar magnetic field, with pulsar-like bright main pulses and weaker interpulses offset by about half a period are indicative of an oblique or orthogonal rotator. This phenomenon, observed for the first time in a long-period radio transient, confirms that the radio emission originates from both magnetic poles and that the observed period corresponds to the rotation period. The spectroscopic and polarimetric properties of ASKAP J1839-0756 are consistent with a neutron star origin, and this object is a crucial piece of evidence in our understanding of long-period radio sources and their links to neutron stars.

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MIGHTEE-HI: deep spectral line observations of the COSMOS field

The MIGHTEE survey utilises the South African MeerKAT radio telescope to observe four extragalactic deep fields, with the aim of advancing our understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies across cosmic time. MIGHTEE's frequency coverage encompasses the $\textrm{H}\scriptstyle\mathrm{I}$ line to a redshift of z $\simeq$ 0.58, and OH megamasers to z $\simeq$ 0.9. We present the MIGHTEE-$\textrm{H}\scriptstyle\mathrm{I}$ imaging products for the COSMOS field, using a total of 94.2 h on-target and a close-packed mosaic of 15 individual pointings. The spectral imaging covers two broad, relatively interference-free regions (960-1150 and 1290-1520~MHz) within MeerKAT's L-band, with up to 26 kHz spectral resolution (5.5 km s$^{-1}$ at $z$ = 0). The median noise in the highest spectral resolution data is 74 $\mu$Jy beam$^{-1}$, corresponding to a 5$\sigma$ $\textrm{H}\scriptstyle\mathrm{I}$ mass limit of 10$^{8.5}$ M$_{\odot}$ for a 300 km s$^{-1}$ line at $z$ = 0.07. The mosaics cover $>$4 deg$^{2}$, provided at multiple angular resolution / sensitivity pairings, with an angular resolution for $\textrm{H}\scriptstyle\mathrm{I}$ at $z$ = 0 of 12$''$. We describe the spectral line processing workflow that will be the basis for future MIGHTEE-$\textrm{H}\scriptstyle\mathrm{I}$ products, and validation of, and some early results from, the spectral imaging of the COSMOS field. We find no evidence for line emission at the position of the $z$ = 0.376 \HI~line reported from the CHILES survey at a $>$94 per cent confidence level, placing a 3$\sigma$ upper limit of 8.1 $\times$ 10$^{9}$ M$_{\odot}$ on $M_{\mathrm{HI}}$ for this galaxy. A public data release accompanies this article.

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The CRAFT Coherent (CRACO) upgrade I: System Description and Results of the 110-ms Radio Transient Pilot Survey

We present the first results from a new backend on the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, the Commensal Realtime ASKAP Fast Transient COherent (CRACO) upgrade. CRACO records millisecond time resolution visibility data, and searches for dispersed fast transient signals including fast radio bursts (FRB), pulsars, and ultra-long period objects (ULPO). With the visibility data, CRACO can localise the transient events to arcsecond-level precision after the detection. Here, we describe the CRACO system and report the result from a sky survey carried out by CRACO at 110ms resolution during its commissioning phase. During the survey, CRACO detected two FRBs (including one discovered solely with CRACO, FRB 20231027A), reported more precise localisations for four pulsars, discovered two new RRATs, and detected one known ULPO, GPM J1839-10, through its sub-pulse structure. We present a sensitivity calibration of CRACO, finding that it achieves the expected sensitivity of 11.6 Jy ms to bursts of 110 ms duration or less. CRACO is currently running at a 13.8 ms time resolution and aims at a 1.7 ms time resolution before the end of 2024. The planned CRACO has an expected sensitivity of 1.5 Jy ms to bursts of 1.7 ms duration or less, and can detect 10x more FRBs than the current CRAFT incoherent sum system (i.e., 0.5-2 localised FRBs per day), enabling us to better constrain he models for FRBs and use them as cosmological probes.

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The Fast Radio Burst Population Energy Distribution

We examine the energy distribution of the fast radio burst (FRB) population using a well-defined sample of 63 FRBs from the ASKAP radio telescope, 28 of which are localised to a host galaxy. We apply the luminosity-volume ($V/V_{\mathrm{max}}$) test to examine the distribution of these transient sources, accounting for cosmological and instrumental effects, and determine the energy distribution for the sampled population over the redshift range $0.01 \lesssim z \lesssim 1.02$. We find the distribution between $10^{23}$ and $10^{26}$J Hz$^{-1}$ to be consistent with both a pure power-law with differential slope $\gamma=-1.96 \pm 0.15$, and a Schechter function with $\gamma = -1.82 \pm 0.12$ and downturn energy $E_{\rm max} \sim 6.3 \cdot 10^{25}$J Hz$^{-1}$. We identify systematic effects which currently limit our ability to probe the luminosity function outside this range and give a prescription for their treatment. Finally, we find that with the current dataset, we are unable to distinguish between the evolutionary and spectral models considered in this work.

astro-ph.HE

The Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transient incoherent-sum survey

With wide-field phased array feed technology,the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is ideally suited to search for seemingly rare radio transient sources that are difficult to discover previous-generation narrow-field telescopes. The Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transient (CRAFT) Survey Science Project has developed instrumentation to continuously search for fast radio transients (duration < 1 second) with ASKAP, with a particular focus on finding and localising Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). Since 2018, the CRAFT survey has been searching for FRBs and other fast transients by incoherently adding the intensities received by individual ASKAP antennas, and then correcting for the impact of frequency dispersion on these short-duration signals in the resultant incoherent sum (ICS) in real-time. This low-latency detection enables the triggering of voltage buffers, which facilitates the localisation of the transient source and the study of spectro-polarimetric properties at high time resolution. Here we report the sample of 43 FRBs discovered in this CRAFT/ICS survey to date. This includes 22 FRBs that had not previously been reported: 16 FRBs localised by ASKAP to < 1 arcsec and 6 FRBs localised to ~ 10 arcmin. Of the new arcsecond-localised FRBs, we have identified and characterised host galaxies (and measured redshifts) for 11. The median of all 30 measured host redshifts from the survey to date is z=0.23. We summarise results from the searches, in particular those contributing to our understanding of the burst progenitors and emission mechanisms, and on the use of bursts as probes of intervening media. We conclude by foreshadowing future FRB surveys with ASKAP using a coherent detection system that is currently being commissioned. This will increase the burst detection rate by a factor of approximately ten and also the distance to which ASKAP can localise FRBs.

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A serendipitous discovery of HI-rich galaxy groups with MeerKAT

We report on the serendipitous discovery of 49 HI-rich galaxies in a 2.3 hour Open Time observation with MeerKAT. We present their properties including their HI masses, intensity and velocity maps, and spectra. We determine that at least three HI-rich galaxy groups have been detected, potentially as part of a supergroup. Some members of these galaxy groups show clear interaction with each other in their HI emission. We cross-match the detections with PanSTARRS, WISE and GALEX, and obtain stellar masses and star formation rates. One source is found to be a potential OH megamaser, but further follow-up is required to confidently determine this. For 6 sources with sufficient spatial resolution in HI we produce rotation curves with BBarolo, generate mass models, and derive a dark matter halo mass. While the number of galaxies detected in this relatively short pointing appears to be at the high end of expectations compared to other MeerKAT observations and group HIMF studies, this finding highlights the capability of MeerKAT for other serendipitous discoveries, and the potential for many more HI-rich galaxies to be revealed within both existing and upcoming Open Time datasets.

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HI, FRB, what's your z: The first FRB host galaxy redshift from radio observations

Identification and follow up observations of the host galaxies of fast radio bursts (FRBs) not only help us understand the environments in which the FRB progenitors reside, but also provide a unique way of probing the cosmological parameters using the dispersion measures of FRBs and distances to their origin. A fundamental requirement is an accurate distance measurement to the FRB host galaxy, but for some sources viewed through the Galactic plane, optical/NIR spectroscopic redshifts are extremely difficult to obtain due to dust extinction. Here we report the first radio-based spectroscopic redshift measurement for an FRB host galaxy, through detection of its neutral hydrogen (HI) 21-cm emission using MeerKAT observations. We obtain an HI-based redshift of z = 0.0357 for the host galaxy of FRB 20230718A, an apparently non-repeating FRB detected in the CRAFT survey and localized at a Galactic latitude of -0.367 deg. Our observations also reveal that the FRB host galaxy is interacting with a nearby companion, which is evident from the detection of an HI bridge connecting the two galaxies. A subsequent optical spectroscopic observation confirmed an FRB host galaxy redshift of 0.0359 +- 0.0004. This result demonstrates the value of HI to obtain redshifts of FRBs at low Galactic latitudes and redshifts. Such nearby FRBs whose dispersion measures are dominated by the Milky Way can be used to characterise these components and thus better calibrate the remaining cosmological contribution to dispersion for more distant FRBs that provide a strong lever arm to examine the Macquart relation between cosmological DM and redshift.

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MIGHTEE: multi-wavelength counterparts in the COSMOS field

In this paper we combine the Early Science radio continuum data from the MeerKAT International GHz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration (MIGHTEE) Survey, with optical and near-infrared data and release the cross-matched catalogues. The radio data used in this work covers $0.86$ deg$^2$ of the COSMOS field, reaches a thermal noise of $1.7$ $μ$Jy/beam and contains $6102$ radio components. We visually inspect and cross-match the radio sample with optical and near-infrared data from the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) and UltraVISTA surveys. This allows the properties of active galactic nuclei and star-forming populations of galaxies to be probed out to $z \approx 5$. Additionally, we use the likelihood ratio method to automatically cross-match the radio and optical catalogues and compare this to the visually cross-matched catalogue. We find that 94 per cent of our radio source catalogue can be matched with this method, with a reliability of $95$ per cent. We proceed to show that visual classification will still remain an essential process for the cross-matching of complex and extended radio sources. In the near future, the MIGHTEE survey will be expanded in area to cover a total of $\sim$20~deg$^2$; thus the combination of automated and visual identification will be critical. We compare redshift distribution of SFG and AGN to the SKADS and T-RECS simulations and find more AGN than predicted at $z \sim 1$.

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Measuring Galaxy Asymmetries in 3D

One of the commonly used non-parametric morphometric statistics for galaxy profiles and images is the asymmetry statistic. With an eye to current and upcoming large neutral hydrogen (HI) surveys, we develop a 3D version of the asymmetry statistic that can be applied to datacubes. This statistic is more resilient to variations due to the observed geometry than 1D asymmetry measures, and can be successfully applied to lower spatial resolutions (3-4 beams across the galaxy major axis) than the 2D statistic. We have also modified the asymmetry definition from an `absolute difference' version to a `squared difference' version that removes much of the bias due to noise contributions for low signal-to-noise observations. Using a suite of mock asymmetric cubes we show that the background-corrected, squared difference 3D asymmetry statistic can be applied to many marginally resolved galaxies in large wide-area HI surveys such as WALLABY on the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP).

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