A 1.4-GHz survey of the southern European Large-Area ISO Survey region

Abstract

A deep survey of the European Large-Area ISO Survey (ELAIS) eld in the southern celestial hemisphere (hereinafter S1) has been carried out with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) at 1.4 GHz. The S1 region, covering about 4 deg 2 , has also been surveyed in the midand far-infrared (5200 mm) with the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). The radio survey provides uniform coverage of the entire S1 region, with a sensitivity (5j) of 0.4 mJy over the whole area and 0.2 mJy in the centre. To this sensitivity, virtually all the radio counterparts of the far-infrared extragalactic ISO sources should be detected. This paper presents a radio sample complete at the 5j level consisting of 581 sources detected at 1.4 GHz. Of these radio sources, 349 have peak ux density in the range 0.21 mJy, forming a new homogeneous sample of sub-mJy radio sources. Due to its size, depth and multiwaveband coverage, the sample will allow us to study in greater detail the sub-mJy radio source population.