_version_ 1866916226574319616
author Greenwell, Claire L.
Klindt, Lizelke
Lansbury, George B.
Rosario, David J.
Alexander, David M.
Aird, James
Stern, Daniel
Forster, Karl
Koss, Michael J.
Bauer, Franz E.
Ricci, Claudio
Tomsick, John
Brandt, William N.
Connor, Thomas
Boorman, Peter G.
Annuar, Adlyka
Ballantyne, David R.
Chen, Chien-Ting
Civano, Francesca
Comastri, Andrea
Fawcett, Victoria A.
Fornasini, Francesca M.
Gandhi, Poshak
Harrison, Fiona
Heida, Marianne
Hickox, Ryan
Kammoun, Elias S.
Lanz, Lauranne
Marchesi, Stefano
Noirot, Gaël
Romero-Colmenero, Encarni
Treister, Ezequiel
Urry, C. Megan
Väisänen, Petri
van Soelen, Brian
author_facet Greenwell, Claire L.
Klindt, Lizelke
Lansbury, George B.
Rosario, David J.
Alexander, David M.
Aird, James
Stern, Daniel
Forster, Karl
Koss, Michael J.
Bauer, Franz E.
Ricci, Claudio
Tomsick, John
Brandt, William N.
Connor, Thomas
Boorman, Peter G.
Annuar, Adlyka
Ballantyne, David R.
Chen, Chien-Ting
Civano, Francesca
Comastri, Andrea
Fawcett, Victoria A.
Fornasini, Francesca M.
Gandhi, Poshak
Harrison, Fiona
Heida, Marianne
Hickox, Ryan
Kammoun, Elias S.
Lanz, Lauranne
Marchesi, Stefano
Noirot, Gaël
Romero-Colmenero, Encarni
Treister, Ezequiel
Urry, C. Megan
Väisänen, Petri
van Soelen, Brian
contents We present a catalog of hard X-ray serendipitous sources detected in the first 80 months of observations by the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). The NuSTAR serendipitous survey 80-month (NSS80) catalog has an unprecedented $\sim$ 62 Ms of effective exposure time over 894 unique fields (a factor of three increase over the 40-month catalog), with an areal coverage of $\sim $36 deg$^2$, larger than all NuSTAR extragalactic surveys. NSS80 provides 1274 hard X-ray sources in the $3-24$ keV band (822 new detections compared to the previous 40-month catalog). Approximately 76% of the NuSTAR sources have lower-energy ($<10$ keV) X-ray counterparts from Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Swift-XRT. We have undertaken an extensive campaign of ground-based spectroscopic follow-up to obtain new source redshifts and classifications for 427 sources. Combining these with existing archival spectroscopy provides redshifts for 550 NSS80 sources, of which 547 are classified. The sample is primarily composed of active galactic nuclei (AGN), detected over a large range in redshift ($z$ = 0.012-3.43), but also includes 58 spectroscopically confirmed Galactic sources. In addition, five AGN/galaxy pairs, one dual AGN system, one BL Lac candidate, and a hotspot of 4C 74.26 (radio quasar) have been identified. The median rest-frame $10-40$ keV luminosity and redshift of the NSS80 are $\langle{L_\mathrm{10-40 keV}}\rangle$ = 1.2 $\times$ 10$^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$ and $\langle z \rangle = 0.56$. We investigate the optical properties and construct composite optical spectra to search for subtle signatures not present in the individual spectra, finding an excess of redder BL AGN compared to optical quasar surveys predominantly due to the presence of the host-galaxy and, at least in part, due to dust obscuration.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_17637
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The NuSTAR Serendipitous Survey: the 80-month catalog and source properties of the high-energy emitting AGN and quasar population
Greenwell, Claire L.
Klindt, Lizelke
Lansbury, George B.
Rosario, David J.
Alexander, David M.
Aird, James
Stern, Daniel
Forster, Karl
Koss, Michael J.
Bauer, Franz E.
Ricci, Claudio
Tomsick, John
Brandt, William N.
Connor, Thomas
Boorman, Peter G.
Annuar, Adlyka
Ballantyne, David R.
Chen, Chien-Ting
Civano, Francesca
Comastri, Andrea
Fawcett, Victoria A.
Fornasini, Francesca M.
Gandhi, Poshak
Harrison, Fiona
Heida, Marianne
Hickox, Ryan
Kammoun, Elias S.
Lanz, Lauranne
Marchesi, Stefano
Noirot, Gaël
Romero-Colmenero, Encarni
Treister, Ezequiel
Urry, C. Megan
Väisänen, Petri
van Soelen, Brian
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We present a catalog of hard X-ray serendipitous sources detected in the first 80 months of observations by the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). The NuSTAR serendipitous survey 80-month (NSS80) catalog has an unprecedented $\sim$ 62 Ms of effective exposure time over 894 unique fields (a factor of three increase over the 40-month catalog), with an areal coverage of $\sim $36 deg$^2$, larger than all NuSTAR extragalactic surveys. NSS80 provides 1274 hard X-ray sources in the $3-24$ keV band (822 new detections compared to the previous 40-month catalog). Approximately 76% of the NuSTAR sources have lower-energy ($<10$ keV) X-ray counterparts from Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Swift-XRT. We have undertaken an extensive campaign of ground-based spectroscopic follow-up to obtain new source redshifts and classifications for 427 sources. Combining these with existing archival spectroscopy provides redshifts for 550 NSS80 sources, of which 547 are classified. The sample is primarily composed of active galactic nuclei (AGN), detected over a large range in redshift ($z$ = 0.012-3.43), but also includes 58 spectroscopically confirmed Galactic sources. In addition, five AGN/galaxy pairs, one dual AGN system, one BL Lac candidate, and a hotspot of 4C 74.26 (radio quasar) have been identified. The median rest-frame $10-40$ keV luminosity and redshift of the NSS80 are $\langle{L_\mathrm{10-40 keV}}\rangle$ = 1.2 $\times$ 10$^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$ and $\langle z \rangle = 0.56$. We investigate the optical properties and construct composite optical spectra to search for subtle signatures not present in the individual spectra, finding an excess of redder BL AGN compared to optical quasar surveys predominantly due to the presence of the host-galaxy and, at least in part, due to dust obscuration.
title The NuSTAR Serendipitous Survey: the 80-month catalog and source properties of the high-energy emitting AGN and quasar population
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.17637