We present an extensive search to identify the counterparts of all the microwave foreground sources listed in the WMAP 3-year catalogue using literature and archival data. Our work has led to the identification of 309 WMAP sources, 98% of which are blazars, radio quasars, or radio galaxies. Only 7 WMAP detections were identified with other types of cosmic sources (3 starburst galaxies and 4 planetary/LBN nebulae). At present, 15 objects (<5%) still remain without identification because of the unavailability of optical spectroscopic data or a clear radio counterpart. Our results allow us to define a flux-limited sample of 203 high Galactic latitude microwave sources (f_41GHz_>=1Jy, |b_II_|>15{deg} that is virtually completely identified (99%).
We present the list of point sources found in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) five-year maps. The technique used in the first-year and three-year analyses now finds 390 point sources, and the five-year source catalog is complete for regions of the sky away from the Galactic plane to a 2Jy limit, with SNR>4.7 in all bands in the least covered parts of the sky. The noise at high frequencies is still mainly radiometer noise, but at low frequencies the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy is the largest uncertainty. A separate search of CMB-free V-W maps finds 99 sources of which all but one can be identified with known radio sources. The sources seen by WMAP are not strongly polarized. Many of the WMAP sources show significant variability from year to year, with more than a 2:1 range between the minimum and maximum fluxes.
We examine the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect in the seven year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data by cross-correlating it with the Planck Early-release Sunyaev-Zeldovich catalog (Cat. VIII/88/esz). Our analysis proceeds in two parts. We first perform a stacking analysis in which the filtered WMAP data are averaged at the locations of the 175 Planck clusters. We then perform a regression analysis to compare the mean amplitude of the SZ signal, Y_500_, in the WMAP data to the corresponding amplitude in the Planck data. The aggregate Planck clusters are detected in the seven year WMAP data with a signal-to-noise ratio of 16.3. In the regression analysis, we find that the SZ amplitude measurements agree to better than 25%: a=1.23+/-0.18 for the fit Y_500_^wmap^=aY_500_^planck^.
Observations of neutral hydrogen can provide a wealth of information about the kinematics of galaxies. To learn more about the large-scale structures and accretion processes, the extended environment of galaxies have to be observed. Numerical simulations predict a cosmic web of extended structures and gaseous filaments. To observe the direct vicinity of galaxies, column densities have to be achieved that probe the regime of Lyman limit systems. Typically, HI observations are limited to a brightness sensitivity of N_HI_~10^19^cm^-2^, but this has to be improved by ~2 orders of magnitude. With the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT), we mapped the galaxy filament connecting the Virgo Cluster with the Local Group. About 1500 square degrees on the sky was surveyed with Nyquist sampled pointings. By using the WSRT antennas as single-dish telescopes instead of the more conventional interferometer, we were very sensitive to extended emission. The survey consists of a total of 22000 pointings, and each pointing was observed for two minutes with 14 antennas.
The extended environment of galaxies contains a wealth of information about the formation and life cycle of galaxies which are regulated by accretion and feedback processes. Observations of neutral hydrogen are routinely used to image the high brightness disks of galaxies and to study their kinematics. Deeper observations will give more insight into the distribution of diffuse gas in the extended halo of the galaxies and the inter-galactic medium, where numerical simulations predict a cosmic web of extended structures and gaseous filaments. To observe the extended environment of galaxies, column density sensitivities have to be achieved that probe the regime of Lyman limit systems. HI observations are typically limited to a brightness sensitivity of NHI~10^19^cm^-2^, but this must be improved upon by ~2 orders of magnitude.
We present results of a blind 21cm HI-line imaging survey of a galaxy overdensity located behind the Milky Way at l, b ~= 160{deg}, 0.5{deg}. The overdensity corresponds to a zone-of-avoidance crossing of the Perseus-Pisces Supercluster filament. Although it is known that this filament contains an X-ray galaxy cluster (3C 129) hosting two strong radio galaxies, little is known about galaxies associated with this potentially rich cluster because of the high Galactic dust extinction. We mapped a sky area of ~9.6 deg^2^ using the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope in a hexagonal mosaic of 35 pointings observed for 12h each, in the radial velocity range cz=2400-16600km/s. The survey has a sensitivity of 0.36mJy/beam rms at a velocity resolution of 16.5km/s. We detected 211 galaxies, 62 per cent of which have a near-infrared counterpart in the UKIDSS Galactic Plane Survey. We present a catalogue of the HI properties and an HI atlas containing total intensity maps, position-velocity diagrams, global HI profiles and UKIDSS counterpart images. For the resolved galaxies we also present HI velocity fields and radial HI surface density profiles. A brief analysis of the structures outlined by these galaxies finds that 87 of them lie at the distance of the Perseus-Pisces Supercluster (cz~4000-8000km/s) and seem to form part of the 3C 129 cluster. Further 72 detections trace an overdensity at a velocity of cz~=10000km/s and seem to coincide with a structure predicted from mass density reconstructions in the first 2MASS Redshift Survey.
The XMM Cluster Survey (XCS) is a serendipitous search for galaxy clusters using all publicly available data in the XMM-Newton Science Archive. Its main aims are to measure cosmological parameters and trace the evolution of X-ray scaling relations. In this paper we present the first data release from the XMM Cluster Survey (XCS-DR1). This consists of 503 optically confirmed, serendipitously detected, X-ray clusters. Of these clusters, 256 are new to the literature and 357 are new X-ray discoveries. We present 463 clusters with a redshift estimate (0.06<z<1.46), including 261 clusters with spectroscopic redshifts. The remainder have photometric redshifts. In addition, we have measured X-ray temperatures (TX) for 401 clusters (0.4<TX<14.7keV).
We present the X-ray point-source catalog produced from the Chandra Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS-I) observations of the combined ~3.2deg^2^ DEEP2 (XDEEP2) survey fields, which consist of four ~0.7-1.1deg^2^ fields. The combined total exposures across all four XDEEP2 fields range from ~10ks to 1.1Ms. We detect X-ray point sources in both the individual ACIS-I observations and the overlapping regions in the merged (stacked) images. We find a total of 2976 unique X-ray sources within the survey area with an expected false-source contamination of ~30 sources (<~1%). Additionally, we present a Bayesian-style method for associating the X-ray sources with optical photometric counterparts in the DEEP2 catalog (complete to R_AB_<25.2) and find that 2126 (~71.4%+/-2.8%) of the 2976 X-ray sources presented here have a secure optical counterpart with a <~6% contamination fraction. We provide the DEEP2 optical source properties (e.g., magnitude, redshift) as part of the X-ray-optical counterpart catalog.
The ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS) was the first imaging X-ray survey of the entire sky. Combining the RASS Bright and Faint Source Catalogs (Cat. <IX/10>, 1RXS and <IX/29>) yields an average of about three X-ray sources per square degree. However, while X-ray source counterparts are known to range from distant quasars to nearby M dwarfs, the RASS data alone are often insufficient to determine the nature of an X-ray source. As a result, large-scale follow-up programs are required to construct samples of known X-ray emitters. We use optical data produced by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to identify 709 stellar X-ray emitters cataloged in the RASS and falling within the SDSS Data Release 1 footprint. Most of these are bright stars with coronal X-ray emission unsuitable for SDSS spectroscopy, which is designed for fainter objects (g>15[mag]). Instead, we use SDSS photometry, correlations with the Two Micron All Sky Survey and other catalogs, and spectroscopy from the Apache Point Observatory 3.5m telescope to identify these stellar X-ray counterparts. Our sample of 707 X-ray-emitting F, G, K, and M stars is one of the largest X-ray-selected samples of such stars. We identify 17 new X-ray-emitting DA (hydrogen) WDs, of which three are newly identified WDs. We report on follow-up observations of three candidate cool X-ray-emitting WDs (one DA and two DB (helium) WDs); we have not confirmed X-ray emission from these WDs.
We present a catalogue of 286 X-ray sources with their optical identification taken from the XMDS survey (using the XMM-Newton EPIC instrument). This first version is limited to sources detected at 4{sigma} at least in one energy band, AND falling in the area covered by the optical VVDS survey.
