H i in and behind the Hubble Frontier Field clusters: A deep MeerKAT pilot search out to z ∼0.5

The Hubble Frontier Fields (HFF) are a selection of well-studied galaxy clusters used to probe dense environments and distant gravitationally lensed galaxies. We explore the 21cm neutral hydrogen (H i) content of galaxies in three of the HFF clusters, Abell 2744 (z = 0.308), Abell S1063 (z = 0.346), and Abell 370 (z = 0.375), to investigate the evolution of gas in galaxies within intermediate redshift clusters. Using Early Science MeerKAT observations, we perform spectral-line stacking with H i cubes and make a 3σ stacked detection for blue galaxies in Abell S1063 ($M_\mathrm{HI} = 1.22^{+0.38}_{-0.36}\, \times 10^{10}\, \mathrm{M}_\odot$). We determine the 3σ H i mass detection limits of Abell 2744 and Abell 370 to be at the knee of the H i mass function. A final, more ambitious objective of this work is to search for gravitationally lensed H i emission behind these clusters, enabled by MeerKAT's wide instantaneous bandwidth. We find no evidence of highly magnified H i emission at 0.33 < z < 0.58. The low thermal noise levels achieved in these pilot observations, despite short integration times, highlights the enormous potential of future MeerKAT H i observations of dense environments, and the intermediate-redshift Universe.