No Arabic abstract
We present initial results and the source catalog from the NuSTAR survey of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (hereafter, ECDFS) - currently the deepest contiguous component of the NuSTAR extragalactic survey program. The survey covers the full ~30 arcmin x 30 arcmin area of this field to a maximum depth of ~360 ks (~220 ks when corrected for vignetting at 3-24 keV), reaching sensitivity limits of ~1.3 x 10^-14 erg/cm2/s (3-8 keV), ~3.4 x 10^-14 erg/cm2/s (8-24 keV) and ~3.0 x 10^-14 erg/cm2/s (3-24 keV). Fifty four (54) sources are detected over the full field, although five of these are found to lie below our significance threshold once contaminating flux from neighboring (i.e., blended) sources is taken into account. Of the remaining 49 that are significant, 19 are detected in the 8-24 keV band. The 8-24 keV to 3-8 keV band ratios of the twelve sources that are detected in both bands span the range 0.39-1.7, corresponding to a photon index range of Gamma ~ 0.5-2.3, with a median photon index of 1.70 +/- 0.52. The redshifts of the 49 sources in our main sample span the range z = 0.21-2.7, and their rest-frame 10-40 keV luminosities (derived from the observed 8-24 keV fluxes) span the range L(10-40 keV) ~ (0.7-300) x 10^43 erg/s, sampling below the knee of the X-ray luminosity function out to z ~ 0.8-1. Finally, we identify one NuSTAR source that has neither a Chandra nor an XMM-Newton counterpart, but that shows evidence of nuclear activity at infrared wavelengths, and thus may represent a genuine, new X-ray source detected by NuSTAR in the ECDFS.
To provide the census of the sources contributing to the X-ray background peak above 10 keV, NuSTAR is performing extragalactic surveys using a three-tier wedding cake approach. We present the NuSTAR survey of the COSMOS field, the medium sensitivity and medium area tier, covering 1.7 deg2 and overlapping with both Chandra and XMM-Newton data. This survey consists of 121 observations for a total exposure of ~3 Ms. To fully exploit these data, we developed a new detection strategy, carefully tested through extensive simulations. The survey sensitivity at 20% completeness is 5.9, 2.9 and 6.4 x 10^-14 erg/cm2/s in the 3-24 keV, 3-8 keV and 8-24 keV bands, respectively. By combining detections in 3 bands, we have a sample of 91 NuSTAR sources with 10^42 -10^45.5 erg/s luminosities and redshift z=0.04-2.5. Thirty two sources are detected in the 8-24 keV band with fluxes ~100 times fainter than sources detected by Swift-BAT. Of the 91 detections, all but four are associated with a Chandra and/or XMM-Newton point-like counterpart. One source is associated with an extended lower energy X-ray source. We present the X-ray (hardness ratio and luminosity) and optical-to-X-ray properties. The observed fraction of candidate Compton-thick AGN measured from the hardness ratio is between 13-20%. We discuss the spectral properties of NuSTAR J100259+0220.6 (ID 330) at z=0.044, with the highest hardness ratio in the entire sample. The measured column density exceeds 10^24 /cm2, implying the source is Compton-thick. This source was not previously recognized as such without the >10 keV data.
Ultra-deep observations of ECDF-S with Chandra and XMM-Newton enable a search for extended X-ray emission down to an unprecedented flux of $2times10^{-16}$ ergs s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$. We present the search for the extended emission on spatial scales of 32$^{primeprime}$ in both Chandra and XMM data, covering 0.3 square degrees and model the extended emission on scales of arcminutes. We present a catalog of 46 spectroscopically identified groups, reaching a redshift of 1.6. We show that the statistical properties of ECDF-S, such as logN-logS and X-ray luminosity function are broadly consistent with LCDM, with the exception that dn/dz/d$Omega$ test reveals that a redshift range of $0.2<z<0.5$ in ECDF-S is sparsely populated. The lack of nearby structure, however, makes studies of high-redshift groups particularly easier both in X-rays and lensing, due to a lower level of clustered foreground. We present one and two point statistics of the galaxy groups as well as weak-lensing analysis to show that the detected low-luminosity systems are indeed low-mass systems. We verify the applicability of the scaling relations between the X-ray luminosity and the total mass of the group, derived for the COSMOS survey to lower masses and higher redshifts probed by ECDF-S by means of stacked weak lensing and clustering analysis, constraining any possible departures to be within 30% in mass. Abridged.
In this Paper we present the source catalog obtained from a 942 ks exposure of the Chandra Deep Field South (CDFS), using ACIS-I on the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Catalog generation proceeded simultaneously using two different methods; a method of our own design using a modified version of the SExtractor algorithm, and a wavelet transform technique developed specifically for Chandra observations. The detection threshold has been set in order to have less than 10 spurious sources, as assessed by extensive simulations. We subdivided the catalog into four sections. The primary list consists of objects common to the two detection methods. Two secondary lists contain sources which were detected by: 1) the SExtractor algorithm alone and 2) the wavelet technique alone. The fourth list consists of possible diffuse or extended sources. The flux limits at the aimpoint for the soft (0.5--2 keV) and hard (2--10 keV) bands are 5.5E-17 erg/s/cm^2 and 4.5E-16 erg/s/cm^2 respectively. The total number of sources is 346; out of them, 307 were detected in the 0.5--2 keV band, and 251 in the 2--10 keV band. We also present optical identifications for the catalogued sources. Our primary optical data is R band imaging to a depth of R~26.5 (Vega). We found that the R-band/Chandra offsets are small, ~1 arcsec. Coordinate cross-correlation finds 85% of the Chandra sources covered in R to have counterparts within the 3-sigma error box (>~1.5 arcsec depending on off-axis angle and signal-to-noise). The unidentified fraction of sources, approximately ~10--15 %, is close to the limit expected from the observed X-ray flux to R-band ratio distribution for the identified sample.
The Extended Chandra Deep Field-South (ECDFS) survey consists of 4 Chandra ACIS-I pointings and covers $approx$ 1100 square arcminutes ($approx$ 0.3 deg$^2$) centered on the original CDF-S field to a depth of approximately 228 ks. This is the largest Chandra survey ever conducted at such depth, and only one XMM-Newton survey reaches a lower flux limit in the hard 2.0--8.0 keV band. We detect 651 unique sources -- 587 using a conservative source detection threshold and 64 using a lower source detection threshold. These are presented as two separate catalogs. Of the 651 total sources, 561 are detected in the full 0.5--8.0 keV band, 529 in the soft 0.5--2.0 keV band, and 335 in the hard 2.0--8.0 keV band. For point sources near the aim point, the limiting fluxes are approximately $1.7 times 10^{-16}$ $rm{erg cm^{-2} s^{-1}}$ and $3.9 times 10^{-16}$ $rm{erg cm^{-2} s^{-1}}$ in the 0.5--2.0 keV and 2.0--8.0 keV bands, respectively. Using simulations, we determine the catalog completeness as a function of flux and assess uncertainties in the derived fluxes due to incomplete spectral information. We present the differential and cumulative flux distributions, which are in good agreement with the number counts from previous deep X-ray surveys and with the predictions from an AGN population synthesis model that can explain the X-ray background. In general, fainter sources have harder X-ray spectra, consistent with the hypothesis that these sources are mainly obscured AGN.
We present the results and the source catalog of the NuSTAR survey in the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey (UDS) field, bridging the gap in depth and area between NuSTARs ECDFS and COSMOS surveys. The survey covers a $sim 0.6$ deg$^2$ area of the field for a total observing time of $sim$ 1.75 Ms, to a half-area depth of $sim$ 155 ks corrected for vignetting at $3-24$ keV, and reaching sensitivity limits at half-area in the full ($3-24$ keV), soft ($3-8$ keV) and hard ($8-24$ keV) bands of $2.2 times 10^{-14}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$, $1.0 times 10^{-14}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$, and $2.7 times 10^{-14}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$, respectively. A total of 67 sources are detected in at least one of the three bands, 56 of which have a robust optical redshift with a median of $langle zrangle sim 1.1$. Through a broadband ($0.5-24$ keV) spectral analysis of the whole sample combined with the NuSTAR hardness ratios, we compute the observed Compton-thick (CT; $N_{rm H} > 10^{24}$ cm$^{-2}$) fraction. Taking into account the uncertainties on each $N_{rm H}$ measurement, the final number of CT sources is $6.8pm1.2$. This corresponds to an observed CT fraction of $(11.5pm2.0)%$, providing a robust lower limit to the intrinsic fraction of CT AGN and placing constraints on cosmic X-ray background synthesis models.