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The NuSTAR Serendipitous Survey: The 40-month Catalog and the Properties of the Distant High-Energy X-ray Source Population

Lansbury, G.B.; Stern, D.; Aird, J.; Alexander, D.M.; Fuentes, C.; Harrison, F.A.; Treister, E.; Bauer, F.E.; Tomsick, J.A.; Balokovic, M.; Del Moro, A.; Gandhi, P.; Ajello, M.; Annuar, A.; Ballantyne, D.R.; Boggs, S.E.; Brandt, N.; Brightman, M.; Chen, C.J.; Christensen, F.E.; Civano, F.; Comastri, A.; Craig, W.W.; Forster, K.; Grefenstette, B.W.; Hailey, C.J.; Hickox, R.; Jiang, B.; Jun, H.; Koss, M.; Marchesi, S.; Melo, A.D.; Mullaney, J.R.; Noirot, G.; Schulze, S.; Walton, D.J.; Zappacosta, L.; Zhang, W.

The NuSTAR Serendipitous Survey: The 40-month Catalog and the Properties of the Distant High-Energy X-ray Source Population Thumbnail


Authors

G.B. Lansbury

D. Stern

J. Aird

C. Fuentes

F.A. Harrison

E. Treister

F.E. Bauer

J.A. Tomsick

M. Balokovic

A. Del Moro

P. Gandhi

M. Ajello

A. Annuar

D.R. Ballantyne

S.E. Boggs

N. Brandt

M. Brightman

C.J. Chen

F.E. Christensen

F. Civano

A. Comastri

W.W. Craig

K. Forster

B.W. Grefenstette

C.J. Hailey

R. Hickox

B. Jiang

H. Jun

M. Koss

S. Marchesi

A.D. Melo

J.R. Mullaney

G. Noirot

S. Schulze

D.J. Walton

L. Zappacosta

W. Zhang



Abstract

We present the first full catalog and science results for the NuSTAR serendipitous survey. The catalog incorporates data taken during the first 40 months of NuSTAR operation, which provide ~20Ms of effective exposure time over 331 fields, with an areal coverage of 13 sq deg, and 497 sources detected in total over the 3-24 keV energy range. There are 276 sources with spectroscopic redshifts and classifications, largely resulting from our extensive campaign of ground-based spectroscopic followup. We characterize the overall sample in terms of the X-ray, optical, and infrared source properties. The sample is primarily comprised of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), detected over a large range in redshift from z = 0.002 - 3.4 (median of = 0.56), but also includes 16 spectroscopically confirmed Galactic sources. There is a large range in X-ray flux, from log( f_3-24keV / erg s^-1 cm^-2 ) ~ -14 to -11, and in rest-frame 10-40 keV luminosity, from log( L_10-40keV / erg s^-1 ) ~ 39 to 46, with a median of 44.1. Approximately 79% of the NuSTAR sources have lower energy (<10 keV) X-ray counterparts from XMM-Newton, Chandra, and Swift/XRT. The mid-infrared (MIR) analysis, using WISE all-sky survey data, shows that MIR AGN color selections miss a large fraction of the NuSTAR-selected AGN population, from ~15% at the highest luminosities (Lx > 10^44 erg s^-1) to ~80% at the lowest luminosities (Lx < 10^43 erg s^-1). Our optical spectroscopic analysis finds that the observed fraction of optically obscured AGNs (i.e., the Type 2 fraction) is F_Type2 = 53(+14-15)%, for a well-defined subset of the 8-24 keV selected sample. This is higher, albeit at a low significance level, than the Type 2 fraction measured for redshift- and luminosity-matched AGNs selected by <10 keV X-ray missions.

Citation

Lansbury, G., Stern, D., Aird, J., Alexander, D., Fuentes, C., Harrison, F., …Zhang, W. (2017). The NuSTAR Serendipitous Survey: The 40-month Catalog and the Properties of the Distant High-Energy X-ray Source Population. Astrophysical Journal, 836(1), Article 99. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/836/1/99

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 7, 2016
Online Publication Date Feb 10, 2017
Publication Date Feb 10, 2017
Deposit Date Jan 20, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Astrophysical Journal
Print ISSN 0004-637X
Electronic ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher American Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 836
Issue 1
Article Number 99
DOI https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/836/1/99
Related Public URLs https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.06389

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Copyright Statement
© 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.






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