The XMM-Newton Serendipitous Survey. V. The Second XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalogue
M. G. Watson, A. C. Schröder, D. Fyfe, C. G. Page, G. Lamer, S. Mateos, J. Pye, M. Sakano, S. Rosen, J. Ballet, X. Barcons, D. Barret, T. Boller, H. Brunner, M.… 展开作者
M. G. Watson, A. C. Schröder, D. Fyfe, C. G. Page, G. Lamer, S. Mateos, J. Pye, M. Sakano, S. Rosen, J. Ballet, X. Barcons, D. Barret, T. Boller, H. Brunner, M. Brusa, A. Caccianiga, F. J. Carrera, M. Ceballos, R. Della Ceca, M. Denby, G. Denkinson, S. Dupuy, S. Farrell, F. Fraschetti, M. J. Freyberg, P. Guillout, V. Hambaryan, T. Maccacaro, B. Mathiesen, R. McMahon, L. Michel, C. Motch, J. P. Osborne, M. Page, M. W. Pakull, W. Pietsch, R. Saxton, A. Schwope, P. Severgnini, M. Simpson, G. Sironi, G. Stewart, I. M. Stewart, A-M. Stobbart, J. Tedds, R. Warwick, N. Webb, R. West, D. Worrall, W. Yuan
备注：
27 pages (plus 8 pages appendices), 15 figures. Minor changes following referee's comments; now accepted for publication in A & A. Note that this paper "V", not paper "VI" in the series. Previous posting was incorrect in this regard
Aims: Pointed observations with XMM-Newton provide the basis for creating catalogues of X-ray sources detected serendipitously in each field. This paper describes the creation and characteristics of the 2XMM catalogue. Methods: The 2XMM catalogue has been compiled from a new processing of the XMM-Newton EPIC camera data. The main features of the processing pipeline are described in detail. Results: The catalogue, the largest ever made at X-ray wavelengths, contains 246,897 detections drawn from 3491 public XMM-Newton observations over a 7-year interval, which relate to 191,870 unique sources. The catalogue fields cover a sky area of more than 500 sq.deg. The non-overlapping sky area is ~360 sq.deg. (~1% of the sky) as many regions of the sky are observed more than once by XMM-Newton. The catalogue probes a large sky area at the flux limit where the bulk of the objects that contribute to the X-ray background lie and provides a major resource for generating large, well-defined X-ray selected source samples, studying the X-ray source population and identifying rare object types. The main characteristics of the catalogue are presented, including its photometric and astrometric properties .
This paper describes the performance of XMM-Newton for serendipitous surveys and summarises the scope and potential of the XMM-Newton Serendipitous Survey. The role of the Survey Science Centre (SSC) in the XMM-Newton project is outlined. The SSC's follow-up and identification programme for the XMM-Newton serendipitous survey is described together with the presentation of some of the first results.
We summarize here the current status of the XMM BSS: a large (about 1000 sources) sample of bright serendipitous XMM sources at high galactic latitude (|b| > 20 deg).
We present here "The XMM-Newton Bright Serendipitous Survey", a survey program conducted by the XMM-Newton Survey Science Center. In particular we discuss the main goals of this project, we present the sample(s) and the current optical breakdown and we discuss some broad band spectral properties as derived from an hardness ratio analysis of the single sources. Finally we report the 4.5--7.5 keV Log(N$>$S)-LogS for type 1 and type 2 AGN.
We describe the production, properties and scientific potential of the XMM-Newton catalogue of serendipitous X-ray sources. The first version of this catalogue is nearing completion and is planned to be released before the end of 2002.
The XMM-Newton Survey Science Center is constructing a large (~1000 sources) and complete sample of bright serendipitous XMM-Newton sources at high galactic latitude, so as to allow both the discovery of sources of high individual interest as well as statistical population studies. The sample, known as ``The XMM-Newton Bright Serendipitous Source Sample" (XMM-Newton BSS), has a flux limit of ~10^(-13) cgs in the 0.5--4.5 keV energy band and will be fundamental in complementing other medium and deep survey programs (having fluxes 10 to 100 times fainter) in order to: a) characterize the X-ray s…
We briefly describe a serendipitous observation of the little-studied intermediate polar WX Pyx using XMM-Newton. The X-ray spin period is 1557.3 sec, confirming the optical period published in 1996. An orbital period of approximately 5.54 hr is inferred from the separation of the spin-orbit sidelobe components. The soft and hard band spin-folded light curves are nearly sinusoidal in shape. The best-fit spectrum is consistent with a bremsstrahlung temperature of about 18 keV. An upper limit of approximately 300 eV is assigned to the presence of Fe line emission. WX Pyx lies near TX and TV Col …
The radio quiet neutron star 1E1207.4-5209 has been the target of a 260 ks XMM-Newton observation, which yielded, as a by product, an harvest of about 200 serendipitous X-ray sources above a limiting flux of 2E-15 erg/cm2/s, in the 0.3-8 keV energy range. In view of the intermediate latitude of our field (b~10 deg), it comes as no surprise that the logN-logS distribution of our serendipitous sources is different from those measured either in the Galactic Plane or at high galactic latitudes. Here we shall concentrate on the analysis of the brightest sources in our sample, which unveiled a previ…
We present preliminary results from a study with XMM-Newton of the galactic serendipitous sources in a sample of 28 nearby Seyfert galaxies (with D < 22 Mpc). We concentrate here on a subset of four galaxies, namely: NGC3185, NGC3486, NGC3941, and NGC4565. In these galaxies we found six ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX). The large collecting area of XMM-Newton makes the statistics sufficient to perform spectral fitting with simple models. We shortly discuss the results obtained so far.
We describe an XMM-Newton observation of the PKS0312-770 field, which facilitates the spectral analysis of serendipitous sources previously detected by CHANDRA. The combination of larger effective area and longer exposure duration allows a significant increase in detected photons, and a lower limit in source detection sensitivity. In particular the hard X-ray normal galaxy unveiled by Fiore et al (2000) is most likely explained as a moderately absorbed (N_H ~ 1e22 cm^-2) AGN. We detect 52 sources (45 previously unreported) at a limiting flux of ~2e-15 cgs in the 0.5-2keV band. The LogN-LogS cu…
We describe the initial results of a programme to detect and identify extended X-ray sources found serendipitously in XMM-Newton observations. We have analysed 186 EPIC-PN images at high galactic latitude with a limiting flux of $1\times 10^{-14}$ \ergcms and found 62 cluster candidates. Thanks to the enhanced sensitivity of the XMM-Newton telescopes, the new clusters found in this pilot study are on the average fainter, more compact, and more distant than those found in previous X-ray surveys. At our survey limit the surface density of clusters is about 5 deg$^{-2}$. We also present the first…
This paper describes updated predictions, as a function of the underlying cosmological model, for a serendipitous galaxy cluster survey that we plan to conduct with the {\em XMM-Newton} X-ray Satellite. We have included the effects of the higher than anticipated internal background count rates and have expanded our predictions to include clusters detected at 3 sigma. Even with the enhanced background levels, we expect the XCS to detect sufficient clusters at z>1 to differentiate between open and flat cosmological models. We have compared the XCS cluster redshift distribution to those expected …
The Optical Monitor Catalogue of serendipitous sources (OMCat) contains entries for every source detected in the publicly available XMM-Newton Optical Monitor (OM) images taken in either the imaging or ``fast'' modes. Since the OM is coaligned and records data simultaneously with the X-ray telescopes on XMM-Newton, it typically produces images in one or more near-UV/optical bands for every pointing of the observatory. As of the beginning of 2006, the public archive had covered roughly 0.5% of the sky in 2950 fields. The OMCat is not dominated by sources previously undetected at other wavelengt…
We present the results of a search of the XMM-Newton public data archive for stellar X-ray flares. We find eight flaring sources for which we identify 7 optical counterparts. Three of these sources have distance estimates which allow us to determine their luminosities. Based on the decay time of the flares and their luminosity we derive loop half-lengths of ~2-7x10^10 cm and emission measures of ~10^54 cm^-3: these are similar to values derived for other stellar flaring sources. One of the stars shows two flares in close succession. We discuss the likelihood of this double event being either s…
In this paper we serendipitously identify X-ray cluster candidates using XMM-Newton archival observations complemented by 5-band optical photometric follow-up observations (r~23 mag) as part of the X-ray Identification (XID) programme. Our sample covers an area of ~2.1 sq. deg (15 XMM-Newton fields) and comprises a total of 21 (19 serendipitous + 2 target) extended X-ray sources to the limit f(0.5-2keV) ~ 6x10^{-15} cgs with a high probability (> 99.9%) of being extended on the XMM-Newton images. Of the 21 cluster candidates 7 are spectroscopically confirmed in the literature. Exploiting the o…
This paper describes a serendipitous galaxy cluster survey that we plan to conduct with the XMM X-ray satellite. We have modeled the expected properties of such a survey for three different cosmological models, using an extended Press-Schechter (Press & Schechter 1974) formalism, combined with a detailed characterization of the expected capabilities of the EPIC camera on board XMM. We estimate that, over the ten year design lifetime of XMM, the EPIC camera will image a total of ~800 square degrees in fields suitable for the serendipitous detection of clusters of galaxies. For the presently-fav…
We aim to test a method of efficiently selecting X-ray obscured AGN in the 2XMM-Newton EPIC Serendipitous Source Catalogue. By means of a strong correlation established using the XMM-Newton Hard Bright Sample between the intrinsic absorption and the hardness ratio to the 0.5-2.0 keV and 2.0-4.5 keV bands, an efficient way of selecting absorbed sources has been worked out. A hardness ratio selection based on the 2XMM-Newton pre-release Source Catalogue led us to the definition of candidates likely to be obscured in X-rays. X-ray and optical spectral analysis were performed for three objects. St…
We report the discovery of a galaxy cluster serendipitously detected as an extended X-ray source in an offset observation of the group NGC 5044. The cluster redshift, z=0.281, determined from the optical spectrum of the brightest cluster galaxy, agrees with that inferred from the X-ray spectrum using the Fe K alpha complex of the hot ICM (z=0.27 +/- 0.01). Based on the 50 ks XMM observation, we find that within a radius of 383 kpc the cluster has an unabsorbed X-ray flux, f_X (0.5-2 keV) = 3.34 (+0.08, -0.13) x 10^{-13} erg/cm^2/s, a bolometric X-ray luminosity, L_X = 2.21 (+0.34, -0.19) x 10^…
In collaboration with the Observatories of Palermo and Rome and the SAX-SDC we are constructing a multi-site interactive archive system featuring specific analysis tools. In this context we developed a detection algorithm based on the Wavelet Transform (WT) and performed a systematic analysis of all ROSAT-HRI public data (~3100 observations +1000 to come). The WT is specifically suitable to detect and characterize extended sources while properly detecting point sources in very crowded fields. Moreover, the good angular resolution of HRI images allows the source extension and position to be acc…
We present the first results on the identifications of a medium sensitivity survey (X-ray flux limit 2E-14 erg/cm2/s in the 0.5-4.5 keV band) at high galactic latitude (|b|>20 deg) carried out with the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory within the AXIS observing programme. This study is being conducted as part of the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre activities towards the identification of the sources in the X-ray serendipitous sky survey. The sample contains 29 X-ray sources in a solid angle of 0.26deg2 (source density 113 +/- 21 sources/deg2), out of which 27 (93%) have been identified. The majori…
We present the XMM-Newton Medium sensitivity Survey (XMS), including a total of 318 X-ray sources found among the serendipitous content of 25 XMM-Newton target fields. The XMS comprises four largely overlapping source samples selected at soft (0.5-2 keV), intermediate (0.5-4.5 keV), hard (2-10 keV) and ultra-hard (4.5-7.5 keV) bands, the first three of them being flux-limited. We report on the optical identification of the XMS samples, complete to 85-95%. At the intermediate flux levels sampled by the XMS we find that the X-ray sky is largely dominated by Active Galactic Nuclei. The fraction o…
ABRIDGED. We present "The XMM-Newton Bright Serendipitous Survey", two flux-limited samples with flux limit fx ~7E-14 cgs in the 0.5-4.5 keV (BSS) and 4.5-7.5 keV (HBSS) energy band, respectively. After discussing the survey strategy, we present the basic data on a complete sample of 400 X-ray sources derived from the analysis of 237 XMM-Newton fields. The survey covers an area of 28.10 (25.17 for the HBSS) sq. deg. Up to now ~71% (~90%) of the sources have been spectroscopically identified making the BSS (HBSS) the sample with the highest number of identified XMM-Newton sources published so f…
We report on the production of a large area, shallow, sky survey, from XMM-Newton slews. The great collecting area of the mirrors coupled with the high quantum efficiency of the EPIC detectors have made XMM-Newton the most sensitive X-ray observatory flown to date. We use data taken with the EPIC-pn camera during slewing manoeuvres to perform an X-ray survey of the sky. Data from 218 slews have been subdivided into small images and source searched. This has been done in three distinct energy bands; a soft (0.2-2 keV) band, a hard (2-12 keV) band and a total XMM-Newton band (0.2-12 keV). Detect…
We present the BMW-Chandra source catalogue drawn from essentially all Chandra ACIS-I pointed observations with an exposure time in excess of 10ks public as of March 2003 (136 observations). Using the wavelet detection algorithm developed by Lazzati et al. (1999) and Campana et al. (1999), which can characterise both point-like and extended sources, we identified 21325 sources. Among them, 16758 are serendipitous, i.e. not associated with the targets of the pointings, and do not require a non-automated analysis. This makes our catalogue the largest compilation of Chandra sources to date. The 0…
Context: The comparison of observed counts in a given sky direction with predictions by Galactic models yields constraints to the spatial distribution and the stellar birthrate of young stellar populations. In this work we present the results of the analysis of the stellar content of the XMM-Newton Bright Serendipitous Survey (XBSS). This unbiased survey includes a total of 58 stellar sources selected in the 0.5 -- 4.5 keV energy band, having a limiting sensitivity of $10^{-2}$ cnt s$^{-1}$ and covering an area of 28.10 sq. deg. Aims: Our main goal is to understand the recent star formation hi…
AIMS: We present the optical classification and redshift of 348 X-ray selected sources from the XMM-Newton Bright Serendipitous Survey (XBS) which contains a total of 400 objects (identification level = 87%). About 240 are new identifications. In particular, we discuss in detail the classification criteria adopted for the Active Galactic Nuclei population. METHODS: By means of systematic spectroscopic campaigns and through the literature search we have collected an optical spectrum for the large majority of the sources in the XBS survey and applied a well-defined classification ``flow-chart''.…
The X-ray spectra of serendipitously observed AGN in the XMM-Newton fields of Mrk 205 and QSO 0130-403 are analysed. The sample consists of 23 objects, none of which is detected at radio frequencies, with a median X-ray luminosity of ~ 4 x 10^44 erg s^-1 and redshifts ranging from ~0.1 to just over 3. The mean photon index was found to be 1.89 +/- 0.04. In contrast to past ASCA and ROSAT observations of high-redshift radio-loud quasars, we find little evidence for excess intrinsic absorption in these radio-quiet objects, with only three sources requiring a column density in excess of the Galac…
We present CAIXA, a Catalogue of AGN In the XMM-Newton Archive. It consists of all the radio-quiet X-ray unobscured ($\mathrm{N_H}<2\times10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$) Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) observed by XMM-Newton in targeted observations, whose data are public as of March 2007. With its 156 sources, this is the largest catalogue of high signal-to-noise X-ray spectra of AGN. All the EPIC pn spectra of the sources in CAIXA were extracted homogeneously and a baseline model was applied in order to derive their basic X-ray properties. These data are complemented by multiwavelength data found in the li…
We report on the results of a detailed analysis of the X-ray spectral properties of a large sample of sources detected serendipitously with the XMM-Newton observatory in 25 selected fields. The survey covers a total solid angle of ~3.5 deg2 and contains 1137 sources with ~10E-15 < S0.5-10 < 10E-12 erg cm-2 s-1. We find evidence for hardening of the average X-ray spectra of the sources towards fainter fluxes. We interpret this as indicating a higher degree of photoelectric absorption amongst the fainter population. Absorption is detected at 95% confidence in 20% of the sources, but it could cer…
AXIS (An XMM-Newton International Survey) is a survey of 36 high Galactic latitude XMM-Newton observations covering 4.8 deg2 and containing 1433 serendipitous X-ray sources detected with 5-sigma significance. We have studied the X-ray source counts in four energy bands soft (0.5-2 keV), hard (2-10 keV), XID (0.5-4.5 keV) and ultra-hard (4.5-7.5 keV). We have combined this survey with shallower and deeper surveys. Our source counts results are compatible with most previous samples in the soft, XID, ultra-hard and hard bands. The fractions of the XRB resolved in the surveys used in this work are…
This paper uses the 1st XMM Serendipitous Source Catalog compiled by the XMM Science Center to identify low-z X-ray selected normal galaxy candidates. Our sample covers a total area of ~6deg^2 to the 0.5-2keV limit 1e-15cgs. A total of 23 sources are selected on the basis of low X-ray-to-optical flux ratio logfx/fopt<-2, soft X-ray spectral properties and optical spectra, when available, consistent with stellar than AGN processes. This sample is combined with similarly selected systems from the Needles in the Haystack Survey (Georgantopoulos et al. 2005) to provide a total of 46 z<0.2 X-ray de…
The XMM-Newton satellite is the most sensitive X-ray observatory flown to date due to the great collecting area of its mirrors coupled with the high quantum efficiency of the EPIC detectors. It performs slewing manoeuvers between observation targets tracking almost circular orbits through the ecliptic poles due to the Sun constraint. Slews are made with the EPIC cameras open and the other instruments closed, operating with the observing mode set to the one of the previous pointed observation and the medium filter in place. Slew observations from the EPIC-pn camera in FF, eFF and LW modes provi…
We present a first catalogue of X-ray sources resulting from the central area of the XMM-LSS (Large Scale Structure survey). We describe the reduction procedures and the database tools we developed and used to derive a well defined catalogue of X-ray sources. The present catalogue is limited to a sub-sample of 286 sources detected at 4 sigma in the 1 deg^2 area covered by the photometric VVDS (VIRMOS VLT Deep Survey), which allows us to provide optical and radio identifications. We also discuss the X-ray properties of a larger X-ray sample of 536 sources detected at > 4 sigma in the full 3 deg…
We describe deep radio imaging at 1.4-GHz of the 1.3 square degree Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field (SXDF), made with the Very Large Array in B and C configurations. We present a radio map of the entire field, and a catalogue of 505 sources covering 0.8 square degrees to a peak flux density limit of 100 microJy. Robust optical identifications are provided for 90% of the sources, and suggested IDs are presented for all but 14 (of which 7 are optically blank, and 7 are close to bright contaminating objects). We show that the optical properties of the radio sources do not change with flux density, su…
We present the X-ray luminosity function of AGN in three energy bands (Soft: 0.5-2 keV, Hard: 2-10 keV and Ultrahard: 4.5-7.5 keV). We have used the XMS survey along with other highly complete flux-limited deeper and shallower surveys for a total of 1009, 435 and 119 sources in the Soft, Hard and Ultrahard bands, respectively. We have modeled the intrinsic absorption of the Hard and Ultrahard sources (NH function) and computed the intrinsic X-ray luminosity function in all bands using a Maximum Likelihood fit technique to an analytical model. We find that the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) is…
We present the X-ray source catalogues for the XMM surveys of the 3-h and 14-h Canada-France Redshift Survey fields (0.5-10 keV flux range ~2E-15 - 1E-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1). We use a subset of the XMM sources, which have Chandra positions, to determine the best method of obtaining optical identifications of sources with only XMM positions. We find optical identifications for 79% of the XMM sources for which there are deep optical images. The sources without optical identifications are likely to be optically fainter and have higher redshifts than the sources with identifications. We have estimated…
Following the presentation of the XMM-LSS X-ray source detection package by Pacaud et al., we provide the source lists for the first 5.5 surveyed square degrees. The catalogues pertain to the [0.5-2] and [2-10] keV bands and contain in total 3385 point-like or extended sources above a detection likelihood of 15 in either band. The agreement with deep logN-logS is excellent. The main parameters considered are position, countrate, source extent with associated likelihood values. A set of additional quantities such as astrometric corrections and fluxes are further calculated while errors on the p…
AIMS: We investigate here the nature of all the sources (35 in total) in the XBS survey (which is 86% optically identified) showing an optical spectrum dominated by the light from the host galaxy with no evidence (or little evidence) for the presence of an AGN. METHODS: We use the X-ray spectral analysis to assess the presence of an AGN in these sources and to characterize its properties. RESULTS: We detect AGN activity in 33 out of 35 sources. The remaining 2 sources are the ones with the lowest X-ray luminosity in the sample (L[2-10keV]<10^41 erg s^-1) and their X-ray emission could be produ…
The Lockman Hole field represents the sky area of lowest Galactic line-of-sight column density N_H=5.7X10^19 cm^-2. It was observed by the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory in 18 pointings for a total of 1.16 Msec (raw EPIC pn observing time) constituting the deepest XMM-Newton exposure so far. We present a catalogue of the X-ray sources detected in the central 0.196 deg^2 of the field and discuss the derived number counts and X-ray colours. In the 0.5--2.0 keV band, a sensitivity limit (defined as the faintest detectable source)of 1.9X10^-16 erg cm^-2 s^-1 was reached. The 2.0--10.0 keV band and 5…
We present results from a project conducted by the Survey Science Center of the XMM-Newton satellite and aiming at the identification and characterisation of serendipitous EPIC sources at low galactic latitudes. Deep multi-colour optical imaging and spectroscopic observations have been obtained in the framework of several observing campaigns carried out at ING, CFHT and ESO. These observations have lead to a number of optical identifications, mostly with active stars. We describe the identified source content at low galactic latitudes and compare stellar populations properties at low and high …
We discuss here the main goals and some interesting results of the "XMM-Newton Bright Serendipitous Survey", a research program conducted by the XMM-Newton Survey Science Center in two complementary energy bands (0.5-4.5 keV and 4.5-7.5 keV) in the bright (>~7E-14) flux regime. The very high identification rate (96%) for the X-ray source sample selected in the 4.5-7.5 keV band is used here to have, in this energy range, an "unbiased" view of the extragalactic hard X-ray sky at bright fluxes.
The XMM-NEWTON Science Archive (XSA) is being developed within the XMM-NEWTON Science Operations Centre at the ESA VILSPA Satellite Tracking Station of Villafranca del Castillo, near Madrid in Spain. The first public version was released on April 15, 2002. Based on the ISO Data Archive architecture and design, the XSA is accessible from the World Wide Web through a Java interface at http://xmm.vilspa.esa.es/xsa that allows: - powerful and complex queries against the observations and exposure catalogue for the first release and against the source catalogue in future releases - configurable resu…
The great collecting area of the mirrors coupled with the high quantum efficiency of the EPIC detectors have made XMM-Newton the most sensitive X-ray observatory flown to date. This is particularly evident during slew exposures which, while giving only 15 seconds of on-source time, actually constitute a 2-10 keV survey ten times deeper than current "all-sky" catalogues. Here we report on progress towards making a catalogue of slew detections constructed from the full, 0.2-12 keV energy band and discuss the challenges associated with processing the slew data. The fast (90 degrees per hour) slew…
We describe in detail the nature of XMM-Newton EPIC background and its various complex components, summarising the new findings of the XMM-Newton EPIC background working group, and provide XMM-Newton background blank sky event files for use in the data analysis of diffuse and extended sources. Blank sky event file data sets are produced from the stacking of data, taken from 189 observations resulting from the Second XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalogue (2XMMp) reprocessing. The data underwent several filtering steps, using a revised and improved method over previous work, which we describ…
We present optical identifications and a multi-band catalogue of a sample of 478 X-ray sources in the XMM and Chandra surveys of the central 0.6 deg^2 of the ELAIS-S1 field. The optical/infrared counterpart of each X-ray source was identified using R and IRAC 3.6 um bands. This method was complemented by the precise positions obtained through Chandra observations. Approximately 94% of the counterparts are detected in the R band, while the remaining are blank fields in the optical down to R~24.5, but have a near-infrared counterpart detected by IRAC within 6 arcsec from the XMM centroid. The mu…
This paper is the first of a series dedicated to the X-ray properties of the young open cluster NGC 6231. Our data set relies on an XMM-Newton campaign of a nominal duration of 180 ks and reveals that NGC 6231 is very rich in the X-ray domain too. Indeed, 610 X-ray sources are detected in the present field of view, centered on the cluster core. The limiting sensitivity of our survey is approximately 6E-15 erg/s/cm^2 but clearly depends on the location in the field of view and on the source spectrum. Using different existing catalogues, over 85% of the X-ray sources could be associated with at …
The scientific data collected during slews of the XMM-Newton satellite are used to construct a slew survey catalogue. This comprises of the order of 4000 sources detected in the EPIC-pn 0.2-12 keV band with exposures of less than 15s and a sky coverage of about 6300 square degrees (source density ~0.65 per square degree). Below 2 keV the sensitivity limit is comparable to the ROSAT PSPC All-Sky Survey and the XMM-Newton slew survey offers long-term variablity studies. Above 2 keV the survey will be a factor of 10 more sensitive than all previous all-sky X-ray surveys. The slew survey is almost…
The XMM-Newton Survey Science Center is currently conducting an optical identification programme of serendipitous EPIC sources at low galactic latitudes. The aim of this study is to quantify the various populations contributing to the overall X-ray emission of the Galaxy and elaborate identification rules that can be later applied to the bulk of the low galactic latitude EPIC detections. We report here on preliminary results from an optical campaign performed in two very low b XMM-Newton fields and discuss the contributions of the various X-ray populations. This paper is presented on behalf of…
X-ray emission from the eastern radio lobe of the FRII Radio Galaxy Pictor A was serendipitously discovered by a short observation of XMM-Newton in 2001. The X-ray spectrum, accumulated on a region covering about half of the entire radio lobe, was well described by both a thermal model and a power law, making non-univocal the physical interpretation. A new XMM-Newton observation performed in 2005 has allowed the detection of the X-ray emission from both radio lobes and unambiguously revealed its non-thermal origin. The X-ray emission is due to Inverse Compton (IC) of the cosmic microwave backg…
The X-ray transient XMMU J174716.1-281048 was serendipitously discovered with XMM-Newton in 2003. It lies about 0.9 degrees off the Galactic Centre and its spectrum shows a high absorption (~8 x 10E22 cm^(-2)). Previous X-ray observations of the source field performed in 2000 and 2001 did not detect the source, indicative of a quiescent emission at least two orders of magnitude fainter. The low luminosity during the outburst (~5 x 10E34 erg/s at 8 kpc) indicates that the source is a member of the ``very faint X-ray transients'' class. On 2005 March 22nd the INTEGRAL satellite caught a possible…
We report an XMM-Newton observation of the Low mass X-ray Binary (LMXB) and black hole candidate 4U1755-33. This source had been a bright persistent source for at least 25 yrs, but in 1995 entered an extended quiescent phase. 4U1755-33 was not detected with an upper limit to the 2-10 keV luminosity of 5.10^31 erg/s (assuming a distance of 4 kpc) - consistent with the luminosity of other black hole candidates in a quiescent state. An unexpected result is the discovery of a narrow 7' long X-ray jet-like feature centered on the position of 4U1755-33. The spectrum of the jet is similar to that obs…
The XMM identification (XID) programme is accumulating Optical/IR data to identify thousands of XMM sources at both high ($bII > 20^{\circ}$) and low galactic latitude. X-ray sources are divided into samples on the basis of their X-ray flux and their Galactic latitude. The XID Programme aims to identify and classify around 1000 object in each sample. These in turn, will be used to provide a basis for the statistical identification of the much larger pool of serendipitous objects observed in XMM fields. The purpose of the XID database is to underpin these projects by storing and connecting key …
Aims. We report the discovery of a peculiar object observed serendipitously with XMM-Newton. We present its timing and spectral properties and investigate its optical counterpart. Methods. The light curve of the X-ray source, its spectrum, and the spectrum of the best optical counterpart are presented and analyzed. Results. The X-ray flux decreases by a factor of 6.5 within 1 h and stays in a low state for at least 10 h, thereby suggesting the presence of an eclipse. The spectrum is very soft, a power law with a slope of Gamma~2.8, and does not change significantly before and after the flux dr…
In 2001, using a large spectroscopic dataset from an extensive monitoring campaign, we discovered that the peculiar Of star HD108 displayed spectacular line variations. This strange behaviour could be attributed to a variety of models, and an investigation of the high energy properties of HD108 was crucially needed to test the predictions from these models. Our dedicated XMM-Newton observation of HD108 shows that its spectrum is well represented by a two temperature thermal plasma model with kT_1\sim0.2 keV and kT_2sim1.4 keV. In addition, we find that the star does not display any significant…
We briefly report on an on-going spectroscopic study of hard X-ray sources selected serendipitously in 12 XMM-Newton fields. Results for the analysis of the 41 sources from the first seven EPIC observations have been discussed in a previous paper (Piconcelli et al. 2002, Paper I) where we found an absolute fraction of X-ray absorbed sources (~30%) lower than expected (~50%) by the predictions of popular CXB synthesis models at F(2-10)~5x10**(-14) erg cm**-2 s**-1. We present here the preliminary results concerning the whole sample including five new deeper XMM-Newton measurements increasing th…
XMM-Newton, with the huge collecting area of its mirrors and the high quantum efficiency of its EPIC detectors, is the most sensitive X-ray observatory ever flown. This is strikingly evident during slew exposures, which, while yielding only at most 14 seconds of on-source exposure time, actually constitute a 2-10 keV survey ten times deeper than all other "all-sky" surveys. The current (April 2005) XMM archive contains 374 slew exposures which give a uniform coverage over around 10,000 square degrees (approx. 25% of the sky). Here we describe the results of pilot studies, the current status of…
In A0-1 we proposed an ambitious long-term survey of selected regions of our Galaxy (the XGPS survey) using the EPIC CCD cameras on XMM-Newton. The first phase of the programme, which aims to survey a strip of the Galactic Plane in the Scutum region, is currently underway. Here we report on the preliminary results from the first 15 survey pointings. We show that the XGPS survey strategy of fairly shallow (5-10 ks) exposures but wide-angle coverage is well tuned to the goal of providing a large catalogue of predominantly Galactic sources at relatively faint X-ray fluxes in the hard 2-6 keV band…
We report the serendipitous discovery of several unresolved X-ray sources lying in the prominent spiral arms of the galaxy KUG 0214-057 in XMM-Newton observations. The location of these X-ray sources strongly suggests that at least three, and possibly four, of these may be physically related to the galaxy. The luminosity of each of these sources at the distance of KUG 0214-057 is > 5 x 10^39 erg/s (0.3-10 keV), making each a strong candidate ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX). Using the ULXs as a metric implies that this relatively low-mass galaxy may be experiencing rather intense starburst act…
We have obtained a sample of 143 normal galaxies with X-ray luminosity in the range $10^{38} - 10^{43}$ erg s$^{-1}$ from the cross-correlation of the ROSAT HRI Brera Multi-scale Wavelet (BMW -- HRI) Catalogue with the Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database (LEDA). We find that the average X-ray properties of this sample are in good agreement with those of other samples of galaxies in the literature. We have selected a complete flux limited serendipitous sample of 32 galaxies from which we have derived the logN-logS distribution of normal galaxies in the flux range $1.1 - 110 \times 10^{-14}$ erg …
We present the Final Analysis of the European Large Area ISO Survey (ELAIS) 15 $μ$m observations, carried out with the ISOCAM instrument on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). The data reduction method, known as LARI method, is based on a mathematical model of the detector's behaviour and was specifically designed for the detection of faint sources in ISO-CAM/PHOT data. The method is fully interactive and leads to very reliable and complete source lists. The resulting catalogue includes 1923 sources detected with $S/N > 5$ in the {0.5 -- 100 mJy} flux range and over an area of 10.85 {d…
We report on our serendipitous discovery with the XMM-Newton Observatory of a luminous X-ray emitting cluster of galaxies that is located behind the Andromeda galaxy (M31). X-ray emission from the cluster was detected previously by ROSAT, and cataloged as RX J0046.4+4204, but it was not recognized as a galaxy cluster. The much greater sensitivity of our XMM-Newton observations revealed diffuse x-ray emission that extends at least 5 arcmin and has a surface brightness profile that is well fit by the alpha-beta model with beta = 0.70 +/- 0.08, a core radius r_c = 56 arcsec +/- 16, and alpha = 1.…
