Studying the Galactic Center with MeerKAT S-Band Receivers and the Search for Pulsars

During its inauguration, the MeerKAT released, to date, the most detailed image of  the centre of the Galaxy at L-band (1.28 GHz). Since then, the data have been exploited for various scientific research. One such exploitation was the catalogue of unresolved point sources. Over 1500 sources were identified, of which 20 are steep spectrum point sources (with spectral index $< -1.8$). This work was motivated by the search for radio pulsar candidates in the continuum domain which, when visible, will be observed as point sources, with an expected steep spectra. The expectation comes from the observed average spectral behaviour of the known radio pulsars. Additionally, radio pulsars are  known to have highly linear polarised emission, with some exhibiting circular polarisation. We use the S-Band receivers to survey Galactic Centre region at S1 (2.4 GHz) and S4 (3.1 GHz), with the intent for polarimetric studies of the Radio Arc bubble, Sgr A and B regions, as well as the newly catalogued point sources. The continuum data is recorded while simultaneously placing tied-array beams onto the catalogued point sources to search for any periodicity in the time-domain. We present the S-Band images and the catalogue of interesting sources based on their polarisation properties, as well as the initial time-domain search for pulsations. We also discuss the design and specifications for the future-planned deep search for radio pulsars within one parsec of Sgr A* at S4.