A MeerKAT view on galaxy clusters: a radio-optical study of Abell 1300
  and MACS J1931.8--2634
  In this paper we present results from a radio-optical study of the galaxy
populations of the galaxy clusters Abell 1300 and MACS J1931.8$-$2634, a merger
and a relaxed system respectively both located at $z \sim 0.3$, aimed at
finding evidence of merger-induced radio emission. Radio observations are taken
at 1.28 GHz with the MeerKAT interferometer during its early-stage
commissioning phase, and combined with archive optical data. We generated
catalogues containing 107 and 162 radio sources in the A$~$1300 and MACS
J1931.8--2634 cluster fields respectively, above a 0.2 mJy threshold and within
a 30~arcmin radius from the cluster centre (corresponding to 8.1 and 8.8 Mpc
respectively). By cross-correlating the radio and optical catalogues, and
including spectroscopic information, 9 and 6 sources were found to be cluster
members and used to construct the radio luminosity functions respectively for
both clusters. The comparison of the radio source catalogues between the two
cluster fields leads to a marginal difference, with a $2\sigma$ statistical
significance. We derived the radio luminosity function at 1.28 GHz in both
clusters, in the power range $22.81 < \rm {log~P_{1.28~GHz}~(W/Hz)} < 25.95$,
and obtained that in A 1300 the radio luminosity function averaged over the
full radio power interval is only $3.3 \pm 1.9$ times higher than the MACS
J1931.8--2634 one, suggesting no statistical difference in their probability to
host nuclear radio emission. We conclude that, at least for the two clusters
studied here, the role of cluster mergers in affecting the statistical
properties of the radio galaxy population is negligible.
