We present the X-ray source catalogues for the XMM surveys of the 3-h and 14-h (also known as the Groth Strip) Canada-France Redshift Survey fields (0.5-10keV flux range ~2x10^-15^-10^-13^erg/cm^2^/s). 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 per cent 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 'photometric redshifts' for the identified sources, calibrating our method using ~200 galaxies in the fields with spectroscopic redshifts. We find that the redshift distribution has a strong peak at z~0.7.
A catalog of quasar candidates at redshifts 3<z<5.5 is presented. These candidates have been selected among X-ray sources in the XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalog (3XMM-DR4) in the 0.5-2keV band, located at high galactic latitudes |b|>20deg in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) area. The total overlapping area is about 300 sq. deg. The SDSS, 2MASS and WISE photometric catalogs were used. Only SDSS point sources were considered. X-ray sources having an optical counterpart with magnitude error in SDSS z band of less than 0.2 and color i-z<0.6 were chosen. Their photometric redshifts were determined with the EAZY code using a library of spectral templates. A sample of quasar candidates with photometric redshifts in the range 2.75<z<5.5 has been composed. Objects whose spectral energy distributions are better described by stellar templates have been excluded. The selection completeness of known quasars is about 80%. The normalized median absolute deviation of the differences between the photometric and spectroscopic redshifts of known quasars is 0.07 (with 9% outliers). The sky density of quasar candidates in our sample is 1.5 times that of the spectroscopic SDSS sample in the same fields. Follow-up spectroscopy should clarify the purity of the sample.
The Survey Science Centre of the XMM-Newton satellite released the first incremental version of the 2XMM catalogue in August 2008. Containing more than 220000 X-ray sources, the 2XMMi was at that time the largest catalogue of X-ray sources ever published and thus constitutes an unprecedented resource for studying the high-energy properties of various classes of X-ray emitters such as AGN and stars. Thanks to the high throughput of the EPIC cameras on board XMM-Newton accurate positions, fluxes, and hardness ratios are available for a substantial fraction of the X-ray detections. The advent of the 7th release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey offers the opportunity to cross-match two major surveys and extend the spectral energy distribution of many 2XMMi sources towards the optical bands. This implies building extensive homogeneous samples with a statistically controlled rate of spurious matches and completeness. We here present a cross-matching algorithm based on the classical likelihood ratio estimator. The method developed has the advantage of providing true probabilities of identifications without resorting to heavy Monte-Carlo simulations.
The XMM-Large Scale Structure survey field (XMM-LSS) is an extragalactic window surveyed in the X-ray with the XMM-Newton satellite. It has also been observed in the optical with the Canada-France Hawaii Telescope (CFHTLS survey), and in the infrared with the Spitzer Space Telescope (SWIRE survey). These surveys have been carried out to study the structure and evolution of both baryonic and dark matter on cosmological scales. In two previous papers, we presented deep low frequency radio surveys of the XMM-LSS field, with limiting flux density levels of ~4 and ~1.5mJy/beam at 325 and 610MHz respectively (5{sigma}). These radio surveys were motivated by the need to understand the various connections between the host galaxies of radio sources and their environments. In this paper, we identify optical counterparts to the low frequency radio sources, using the CFHTLS optical catalogue and images, that have an i-band limiting magnitude of i_AB_~25.
Using the XMM-Newton observatory, we have observed the giant H II region N11 of the LMC. The field includes three OB associations LH9, LH9, and LH13. Our XMM observations included parallel observations with the OM camera that provided us with unique UV and optical photometry of more than 6000 sources. In this paper we present the photometrical data for these sources as well as their cross-identifications with several catalogues.
X-ray sources at intermediate fluxes (a few x10^-14^erg/cm^2^/s) with a sky density of ~100deg^-2^ are responsible for a significant fraction of the cosmic X-ray background at various energies below 10keV. The aim of this paper is to provide an unbiased and quantitative description of the X-ray source population at these fluxes and in various X-ray energy bands. 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 (0.5-2keV), intermediate (0.5-4.5keV), hard (2-10keV) and ultra-hard (4.5-7.5keV) bands, the first three of them being flux-limited.
Many different classes of X-ray sources contribute to the Galactic landscape at high energies. Although the nature of the most luminous X-ray emitters is now fairly well understood, the population of low-to-medium X-ray luminosity (LX=10^27-34^erg/s) sources remains much less studied, our knowledge being mostly based on the observation of local members. The advent of wide field and high sensitivity X-ray telescopes such as XMM-Newton now offers the opportunity to observe this low-to-medium LX population at large distances. We report on the results of a Galactic plane survey conducted by the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre (SSC). Beyond its astrophysical goals, this survey aims at gathering a representative sample of identified X-ray sources at low latitude that can be used later on to statistically identify the rest of the serendipitous sources discovered in the Milky Way. The survey is based on 26 XMM-Newton observations, obtained at |b|<20{deg}, distributed over a large range in Galactic longitudes and covering a summed area of 4deg^2^. The flux limit of our survey is 2x10^-15^erg/cm^2^/s in the soft (0.5-2keV) band and 1x10^-14^erg/cm^2^/s in the hard (2-12keV) band. We detect a total of 1319 individual X-ray sources. Using optical follow-up observations supplemented by cross-correlation with a large range of multi-wavelength archival catalogues we identify 316 X-ray sources. This constitutes the largest group of spectroscopically identified low latitude X-ray sources at this flux level. The majority of the identified X-ray sources are active coronae with spectral types in the range A-M at maximum distances of ~1kpc. The number of identified active stars increases towards late spectral types, reaching a maximum at K. Using infrared colours we classify 18% of the stars as giants. The observed distributions of FX/FV, X-ray and infrared colours indicates that our sample is dominated by a young (100Myr) to intermediate (600Myr) age population with a small contribution of close main sequence or evolved binaries. We find other interesting objects such as cataclysmic variables (d~0.6-2kpc), low luminosity high mass stars (likely belonging to the class of {gamma}-Cas-like systems, d~1.5-7kpc), T Tauri and Herbig-Ae stars. A handful of extragalactic sources located in the highest Galactic latitude fields could be optically identified. For the 20 fields observed with the EPIC pn camera, we have constructed logN(>S)-logS curves in the soft and hard bands. In the soft band, the majority of the sources are positively identified with active coronae and the fraction of stars increases by about one order of magnitude from b=60{deg} to b=0{deg} at an X-ray flux of 2x10^-14^erg/cm^2^/s. The hard band is dominated by extragalactic sources, but there is a small contribution from a hard Galactic population formed by CVs, HMXB candidates or {gamma}-Cas-like systems and by some active coronae that are also detected in the soft band. At b=0{deg} the surface density of hard sources brighter than 1x10^-13^erg/cm^2^/s steeply increases by one order of magnitude from l=20{deg} to the Galactic centre region (l=0.9{deg}).
We report on a medium deep XMM-Newton survey of the Marano Field and optical follow-up observations. The mosaicked XMM-Newton pointings in this optical quasar survey field cover 0.6 deg2 with a total of 120ks good observation time. We detected 328 X-ray sources in total. The turnover flux of our sample is f_X_~5x10^-15^erg/cm2/s in the 0.2-10keV band. With VLT FORS1 and FORS2 spectroscopy we classified 96 new X-ray counterparts. The central 0.28deg^2^, where detailed optical follow-up observations were performed, contain 170 X-ray sources (detection likelihood ML>10), out of which 48 had already been detected by ROSAT. In this region we recover 23 out of 29 optically selected quasars. With a total of 110 classifications in our core sample we reach a completeness of ~65%. About one-third of the XMM-Newton sources are classified as type II AGN with redshifts mostly below 1.0. Furthermore, we detect five high redshift type II AGN (2.2<=z<=2.8).
We studied X-ray emission from young stars by analyzing the deep XMM-Newton observations of two regions of the Upper Scorpius association with an age of 5Myr. Based on near infrared and optical photometry we identified 22 Upper Scorpius photometric members among the 224 detected X-ray sources. We derived coronal properties of Upper Scorpius stars by performing X-ray spectral and timing analyses. The study of four strong and isolated stellar flares allowed us to derive the length of the flaring loops.
We report the results of an XMM-Newton observation of the Lagoon Nebula (M 8). Our EPIC images of this region reveal a cluster of point sources, most of which have optical counterparts inside the very young open cluster NGC 6530. The bulk of these X-ray sources are probably associated with low and intermediate mass pre-main sequence stars.
