Description
We study the populations of X-ray sources in the Milky Way in the 15-55keV band using a deep survey with the BAT instrument aboard the Swift observatory. We present the log N-log S distributions of the various source types and we analyze their variability and spectra. For the low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) and the high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), we derive the luminosity functions to a limiting luminosity of L_X_~7x10^34^erg/s. Our results confirm the previously found flattening of the LMXB luminosity function below a luminosity of L_X_~10^37^erg/s. The luminosity function of the HMXBs is found to be significantly flatter in the 15-55keV band than in the 2-10keV band. From the luminosity functions we estimate the ratios of the hard X-ray luminosity from HMXBs to the star formation rate, and the LMXB luminosity to the stellar mass. We use these to estimate the X-ray emissivity in the local universe from X-ray binaries and show that it constitutes only a small fraction of the hard X-ray background.
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