Context. The eROSITA X-ray telescope onboard the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) observatory combines a large field of view and collecting area in the energy range $sim$0.2 to $sim$8.0 keV with the capability to perform uniform scanning observations of
large sky areas. Aims. SRG/eROSITA performed scanning observations of the $sim$140 square degrees eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS) field as part of its performance verification phase. The observing time was chosen to slightly exceed the depth of equatorial fields after the completion of the eROSITA all-sky survey. We present a catalog of detected X-ray sources in the eFEDS field providing source positions and extent information, as well as fluxes in multiple energy bands and document a suite of tools and procedures developed for eROSITA data processing and analysis, validated and optimized by the eFEDS work. Methods. A multi-stage source detection procedure was optimized and calibrated by performing realistic simulations of the eROSITA eFEDS observations. We cross-matched the eROSITA eFEDS source catalog with previous XMM-ATLAS observations, confirming excellent agreement of the eROSITA and XMM-ATLAS source fluxes. Result. We present a primary catalog of 27910 X-ray sources, including 542 with significant spatial extent, detected in the 0.2-2.3 keV energy range with detection likelihoods $ge 6$, corresponding to a point source flux limit of $approx 7 times 10^{-15}$ erg/cm$^2$/s in the 0.5-2.0 keV energy band. A supplementary catalog contains 4774 low-significance source candidates with detection likelihoods between 5 and 6. In addition, a hard band sample of 246 sources detected in the energy range 2.3-5.0 keV above a detection likelihood of 10 is provided. A description of the dedicated data analysis software, calibration database and standard calibrated data products is provided in appendix.
We report the discovery of a giant dust scattering ring around the Black Hole transient MAXI J1348-630 with SRG/eROSITA during its first X-ray all-sky survey. During the discovery observation in February 2020 the ring had an outer diameter of 1.3 deg
, growing to 1.6 deg by the time of the second all sky survey scan in August 2020. This makes the new dust ring the by far largest X-ray scattering ring observed so far. Dust scattering halos, in particular the rings found around transient sources, offer the possibility of precise distance measurements towards the original X-ray sources. We combine data from SRG/eROSITA, XMM-Newton, MAXI, and Gaia to measure the geometrical distance of MAXI J1348-630. The Gaia data place the scattering dust at a distance of 2050 pc, from the measured time lags and the geometry of the ring, we find MAXI J1348-630 at a distance of 3390 pc with a statistical uncertainty of only 1.1% and a systematic uncertainty of 10% caused mainly by the parallax offset of Gaia. This result makes MAXI J1348-630 one of the black hole transients with the best determined distances. The new distance leads to a revised mass estimate for the black hole of 11+-2 solar masses, the transition to the soft state during the outburst occurred when the bolometric luminosity of MAXI J1348-630 had reached 1.7% of its Eddington luminosity.
The XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre Consortium (SSC) develops software in close collaboration with the Science Operations Centre to perform a pipeline analysis of all XMM-Newton observations. In celebration of the 20th launch anniversary, the SSC ha
s compiled the 4th generation of serendipitous source catalogues, 4XMM. The catalogue described here, 4XMM-DR9s, explores sky areas that were observed more than once by XMM-Newton. It was constructed from simultaneous source detection on the overlapping observations, which were bundled in groups (stacks). Stacking leads to a higher sensitivity, resulting in newly discovered sources and better constrained source parameters, and unveils long-term brightness variations. As a novel feature, positional rectification was applied beforehand. Observations with all filters and suitable camera settings were included. Exposures with a high background were discarded, which was determined through a statistical analysis of all exposures in each instrument configuration. The X-ray background maps used in source detection were modelled via adaptive smoothing with newly determined parameters. Source fluxes were derived for all contributing observations, irrespective of whether the source would be detectable in an individual observation. From 1,329 stacks with 6,604 contributing observations over repeatedly covered 300 square degrees in the sky, 4XMM-DR9s lists 288,191 sources. 218,283 of them were observed several times. Most stacks are composed of two observations, the largest one comprises 352. The number of observations of a source ranges from 1 to 40. Auxiliary products like X-ray images, long-term light curves, and optical finding charts are published as well. 4XMM-DR9s is considered a prime resource to explore long-term variability of X-ray sources discovered by XMM-Newton. Regular incremental releases including new public observations are planned.
XMM-Newton has observed the X-ray sky since early 2000. The XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre Consortium has published catalogues of X-ray and ultraviolet sources found serendipitously in the individual observations. This series is now augmented by a
catalogue dedicated to X-ray sources detected in spatially overlapping XMM-Newton observations. The aim of this catalogue is to explore repeatedly observed sky regions. It thus makes use of the long(er) effective exposure time per sky area and offers the opportunity to investigate long-term flux variability directly through the source detection process. A new standardised strategy for simultaneous source detection on multiple observations is introduced. It is coded as a new task within the XMM-Newton Science Analysis System and used to compile a catalogue of sources from 434 stacks comprising 1,789 overlapping XMM-Newton observations that entered the 3XMM-DR7 catalogue, have a low background and full-frame readout of all EPIC cameras. The first stacked catalogue is called 3XMM-DR7s. It contains 71,951 unique sources with positions and parameters such as fluxes, hardness ratios, quality estimates, and information on inter-observation variability. About 15% of the sources are new with respect to 3XMM-DR7. Through stacked source detection, the parameters of repeatedly observed sources can be determined with higher accuracy than in the individual observations. The method is more sensitive to faint sources and tends to produce fewer spurious detections. With this first stacked catalogue we demonstrate the feasibility and benefit of the approach. It supplements the large data base of XMM-Newton detections by additional, in particular faint, sources and adds variability information. In the future, the catalogue will be expanded to larger samples and continued within the series of serendipitous XMM-Newton source catalogues.
We present a sample of 383 X-ray selected galaxy groups and clusters with spectroscopic redshift measurements (up to z ~ 0.79) from the 2XMMi/SDSS Galaxy Cluster Survey. The X-ray cluster candidates were selected as serendipitously detected sources f
rom the 2XMMi-DR3 catalogue that were located in the footprint of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-DR7). The cluster galaxies with available spectroscopic redshifts were selected from the SDSS-DR10. We developed an algorithm for identifying the cluster candidates that are associated with spectroscopically targeted luminous red galaxies and for constraining the cluster spectroscopic redshift. A cross-correlation of the constructed cluster sample with published optically selected cluster catalogues yielded 264 systems with available redshifts. The present redshift measurements are consistent with the published values. The current cluster sample extends the optically confirmed cluster sample from our cluster survey by 67 objects. Moreover, it provides spectroscopic confirmation for 78 clusters among our published cluster sample, which previously had only photometric redshifts. Of the new cluster sample that comprises 67 systems, 55 objects are newly X-ray discovered clusters and 52 systems are sources newly discovered as galaxy clusters in optical and X-ray wavelengths. Based on the measured redshifts and the fluxes given in the 2XMMi-DR3 catalogue, we estimated the X-ray luminosities and masses of the cluster sample.
We report on the discovery of the X-ray luminous cluster XMMU J100750.5+125818 at redshift 1.082 based on 19 spectroscopic members, which displays several strong lensing features. SED modeling of the lensed arc features from multicolor imaging with t
he VLT and the LBT reveals likely redshifts ~2.7 for the most prominent of the lensed background galaxies. Mass estimates are derived for different radii from the velocity dispersion of the cluster members, M_200 ~ 1.8 10^{14} Msun, from the X-ray spectral parameters, M_500 ~ 1.0 10^{14} Msun, and the largest lensing arc, M_SL ~ 2.3 10^{13} Msun. The projected spatial distribution of cluster galaxies appears to be elongated, and the brightest galaxy lies off center with respect to the X-ray emission indicating a not yet relaxed structure. XMMU J100750.5+125818 offers excellent diagnostics of the inner mass distribution of a distant cluster with a combination of strong and weak lensing, optical and X-ray spectroscopy.
We present the results of the X-ray spectral analysis of an XMM-Newton-selected type II QSO sample with z>0.5 and 0.5-10 keV flux of 0.3-33 x 10^{-14} erg/s/cm^2. The distribution of absorbing column densities in type II QSOs is investigated and the
dependence of absorption on X-ray luminosity and redshift is studied. We inspected 51 spectroscopically classified type II QSO candidates from the XMM-Newton Marano field survey, the XMM-Newton-2dF wide angle survey (XWAS), and the AXIS survey to set-up a well-defined sample with secure optical type II identifications. Fourteen type II QSOs were classified and an X-ray spectral analysis performed. Since most of our sources have only ~40 X-ray counts (PN-detector), we carefully studied the fit results of the simulated X-ray spectra as a function of fit statistic and binning method. We determined that fitting the spectra with the Cash-statistic and a binning of minimum one count per bin recovers the input values of the simulated X-ray spectra best. Above 100 PN counts, the free fits of the spectrums slope and absorbing hydrogen column density are reliable. We find only moderate absorption (N_H=(2-10) x 10^22 cm^-2) and no obvious trends with redshift and intrinsic X-ray luminosity. In a few cases a Compton-thick absorber cannot be excluded. Two type II objects with no X-ray absorption were discovered. We find no evidence for an intrinsic separation between type II AGN and high X-ray luminosity type II QSO in terms of absorption. The stacked X-ray spectrum of our 14 type II QSOs shows no iron K-alpha line. In contrast, the stack of the 8 type II AGN reveals a very prominent iron K-alpha line at an energy of ~ 6.6 keV and an EW ~ 2 keV.
X-ray luminous clusters of galaxies at z~1 are emerging as major cosmological probes and are fundamental tools to study the cosmic large-scale structure and environmental effects of galaxy evolution at large look-back times. We present details of the
newly-discovered galaxy cluster XMMU J0104.4-0630 at z=0.947 and a probable associated system in the LSS environment. The clusters were found in a systematic study for high-redshift systems using deep archival XMM-Newton data for the serendipitous detection and the X-ray analysis, complemented by optical/NIR imaging observations and spectroscopy of the main cluster. We find a well-evolved, intermediate luminosity cluster with Lx=(6.4+-1.3)x10^43 erg/s (0.5-2.0 keV) and strong central 1.4 GHz radio emission. The cluster galaxy population exhibits a pronounced transition toward bluer colors at cluster-centric distances of 1-2 core radii, consistent with an age difference of 1-2 Gyr for a single burst solar metallicity model. The second, less evolved X-ray cluster at a projected distance of 6.4 arcmin (~3 Mpc) and a concordant red-sequence color likely forms a cluster-cluster bridge with the main target as part of its surrounding large-scale structure at z~0.95.
We present the analysis and results of a 20 ks XMM-Newton observation of RBS1423. X-ray spectral analysis is used to establish a significantly broadened relativistic iron K-alpha line from a highly ionised disk. A QSO at z=2.262 was considered to be
the optical counterpart of this ROSAT Bright Survey X-ray source. Based on the improved XMM-Newton source position we identified a z=0.208 QSO as optical counterpart to RBS1423. The 0.2-12 keV X-ray luminosity of this radio-quiet QSO is 6x10^{44} erg/s. The XMM-EPIC spectra are well described by a power law with a significantly broadened iron K-alpha line. Disk line models for both Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes require hydrogen-like iron ions to fit the measured line profile. Significant ionisation of the reflection disk is confirmed by model fits with ionised disk models, resulting in an ionisation parameter xi~2000.
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 square degree with a total of 120 ksec good observation time. We det
ected 328 X-ray sources in total. The turnover flux of our sample is f~5x10^(-15) erg/cm^2/s in the 0.2-10 keV band. With VLT FORS1 and FORS2 spectroscopy we classified 96 new X-ray counterparts. The central 0.28 square degree, 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 is 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). The optical and X-ray colors of the core sample indicate that most of the still unidentified X-ray sources are likely to be type II AGN. We calculate absorbing column densities and show that the ratio of absorbed to unabsorbed objects is significantly higher for type II AGN than for type I AGN. Nevertheless, we find a few unabsorbed type II AGN. The X-ray hardness ratios of some high redshift type I AGN also give an indication of heavy absorption. However, none of these type I objects is bright enough for spectral extraction and detailed model fitting. Furthermore, we classified three X-ray bright optically normal galaxies (XBONGs) as counterparts. They show properties similar to type II AGN, probably harbouring an active nucleus.
