Wide-Field, Low-Frequency Radio Survey of the Field of M31. 1. Construction and Statistical Analysis of the Source Catalog

摘要

We present here the results of a 325 MHz radio survey of M31, conducted with the A configuration of the Very Large Array (VLA). The survey covered an area of 7.6 deg(caret)2, and a total of 405 radio sources were mapped. For each source, its morphological class, major axis, minor axis, position angle, peak flux, integrated flux density, spectral index, and spectral curvature parameter were calculated. A comparison of the flux and radial distribution both in the plane of the sky and in the plane of M31 -- of these sources with those of the XMM-Newton Large-Scale Structure Survey and Westerbork Northern Sky Survey revealed that a vast majority of sources detected are background radio galaxies. As a result of this analysis, we expect that only a few sources are intrinsic to M31. These sources are identified and discussed in an accompanying paper.