Description
We present a source catalogue and first results from a deep, blind radio survey carried out at 20GHz with the Australia Telescope Compact Array, with follow-up observations at 5.5, 9 and 18GHz. The Australia Telescope 20GHz (AT20G) deep pilot survey covers a total area of 5deg^2^ in the Chandra Deep Field South and in Stripe 82 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We estimate the survey to be 90% complete above 2.5mJy. Of the 85 sources detected, 55percent have steep spectra ({alpha}_1.4_^20^<-0.5) and 45% have flat or inverted spectra ({alpha}_1.4_^20^>=-0.5). The steep-spectrum sources tend to have single power-law spectra between 1.4 and 18GHz, while the spectral indices of the flat- or inverted-spectrum sources tend to steepen with frequency. Among the 18 inverted-spectrum ({alpha}_1.4_^20^>=0.0) sources, 10 have clearly defined peaks in their spectra with {alpha}_1.4_^5.5^>0.15 and {alpha}_9_^18^<-0.15. On a 3-yr time-scale, at least 10 sources varied by more than 15percent at 20GHz, showing that variability is still common at the low flux densities probed by the AT20G-deep pilot survey.
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