Trehaeven, K. S.K. S.TrehaevenParekh, V.V.ParekhOozeer, N.N.OozeerHugo, B.B.HugoSmirnov, O.O.SmirnovBERNARDI, GianniGianniBERNARDIKnowles,K.KnowlesTasse, C.C.TasseAsad, K. M. B.K. M. B.AsadGiacintucci, S.S.Giacintucci2024-05-282024-05-2820230035-8711http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/35134Radio mini-halos are clouds of diffuse, low surface brightness synchrotron emission that surround the Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG) in massive cool-core galaxy clusters. In this paper, we use third generation calibration (3GC), also called direction-dependent (DD) calibration, and point source subtraction on MeerKAT extragalactic continuum data. We calibrate and image archival MeerKAT L-band observations of a sample of five galaxy clusters (ACO 1413, ACO 1795, ACO 3444, MACS J1115.8+0129, MACS J2140.2-2339). We use the CARACal pipeline for direction-independent (DI) calibration, DDFacet and killMS for 3GC, followed by visibility-plane point source subtraction to image the underlying mini-halo without bias from any embedded sources. Our 3GC process shows a drastic improvement in artefact removal, to the extent that the local noise around severely affected sources was halved and ultimately resulted in a 7\% improvement in global image noise. Thereafter, using these spectrally deconvolved Stokes I continuum images, we directly measure for four mini-halos the flux density, radio power, size and in-band integrated spectra. Further to that, we show the in-band spectral index maps of the mini-halo (with point sources). We present a new mini-halo detection hosted by MACS J2140.2-2339, having flux density $S_{\rm 1.28\,GHz} = 2.61 \pm 0.31$ mJy, average diameter 296 kpc and $\alpha^{\rm 1.5\,GHz}_{\rm 1\,GHz} = 1.21 \pm 0.36$. We also found a $\sim$100 kpc southern extension to the ACO 3444 mini-halo which was not detected in previous VLA L-band observations. Our description of MeerKAT wide-field, wide-band data reduction will be instructive for conducting further mini-halo science.STAMPAenArticle10.1093/mnras/stad3912-s2.0-85159582128https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/520/3/4410/7025957http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.08427v1FIS/05 - ASTRONOMIA E ASTROFISICAERC sectors::Physical Sciences and Engineering::PE9 Universe sciences: astro-physics/chemistry/biology; solar systems; stellar, galactic and extragalactic astronomy, planetary systems, cosmology, space science, instrumentation