1 / 21

Status of the XMM- Newton Slew Survey

Status of the XMM- Newton Slew Survey. P. Esquej, R. Saxton, B. Altieri, A. Read, M. Freyberg, D. Bermejo, V. Lazaro. Outline. Overview & initial impression about the XMM-Newton slew observations Data processing & source searching strategy: current status

Download Presentation

Status of the XMM- Newton Slew Survey

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Status of the XMM-Newton Slew Survey P. Esquej, R. Saxton, B. Altieri, A. Read, M. Freyberg, D. Bermejo, V. Lazaro

  2. Outline • Overview & initial impression about the XMM-Newton slew observations • Data processing & source searching strategy: current status • Attitude reconstruction and positional accuracy • Spurious sources • Extended sources • Sensitivity • Small sample of detected sources • Conclusions

  3. Overview • XMM-Newton performs slewing manoeuvers between targets with the EPIC cameras open and the other instruments closed • PN, MOS-1/2 exposures in Medium filter with the observing mode set to that of previous pointed observation • Open-slew speed = 90 degrees / hour, i.e. on-source time ~14 secs • Area covered to date ~6300 deg2 (~15% of sky) • 465 slew datasets in archive (since Rev 314) • Data initially available for slews longer than 30 minutes • Average usable slew length is ~60 degrees ecliptic coordinates

  4. Initial impressions MOS New operations strategy (from end of 2004): - MOS slews will be used for calibration - All PN slews longer than 15 mins will be down-linked and processed and used for science: XMM Slew Survey - Medium filter if FF, eFF, LW and Closed for other modes • Source appearance depends on the frame time of the observing mode • MOS cameras: spread source into a 4 arcmin streak • pn camera: source extension less than 18 arcsec PN Very low background of average ~0.1 c/arcmin2 due to the low exposure time. But some slews taken in time of enhanced solar activity exhibit high background giving rise to spurious sources

  5. Processing strategy • Slew data processing using a small s/w change (available in SAS 6.5) • Tangential projection not valid over whole slew. Divide slew into 1 deg2 images and recalculate sky positions. • Source search using near-standard pipeline eboxdetect/emldetect combination tuned for ~zero background. • Use sources with DET_ML>10 (equivalent to 3.9 ) • Search independently in three bands and produce three catalogues : • soft (0.2-2 keV) • hard (2-12 keV) • total (0.2-12 keV)

  6. Current Status - Initial processing of 424 slews (FF, eFF or LW) – 25% have high background - Images & exposure maps created and source searched for 220 slews giving 4178 sources in total (0.2-12 keV) band 2750 sources in soft (0.2-2.0 keV) band 844 sources in hard (2.0-12.0 keV) band Source density: ~0.65 sources per square degree ~56% have RASS counterpart within 60 arcsec Completeness * Including high background slews

  7. Attitude Reconstruction • Crucial in determination of source coordinates • Provided by the AOCS: a star-tracker operates in adition with the Sun-sensor provide the information for reconstructing the astrometry (1 arcsec for pointed observations) • Two types of attitude data can be used during event file processing: Raw Attitude File (RAF) and Attitude History File (AHF) - Different in slew observations than that used for pointed observations

  8. Astrometry: initial comparison Two types of positional error (1) Real error of ~15″ (2) Error of 0-60″ (mean 30″) • Comparison with ROSAT survey positions shows a wide distribution, with a tail up to 1 arcmin

  9. Attitude Problem: correction Optimal attitude file: RAF subtracted by 0.75 s from every entry Two types of positional error (1) Real error of ~10″ (2) Error of 0-60″ (mean 30″) but only in slew direction AB Dor Slew direction •  ‘Error ellipse’ around source (slew-oriented) • Good relative astrometry: ~15 arcsec, but poor absolute astrometry: ~30 arcsec • Systematic shift was evidenced, traced to : • quantisation of time to 1 second in AHF • timing error in the RAF, due to a delay of 0.75s of the star tracker CCDs leading to a systematic offset

  10. Achieved astrometric accuracy RASS : 15” (1) SIMBAD : 8” (1)

  11. Spurious sources • Detector flashes: avoided by only using single pattern below 0.5 keV • Within extended or within halo of bright source: can be spotted looking for images with high number of sources • High background images: spurious detections due to localised background flares • Position suspect: several cases • False detection: background related?

  12. Point-like source Extended source Extended vs point-like sources Low background and tight PSF gives good sensitivity to extended sources FF mode point sources are fitted well by a PSF, e.g. source 4 Enough counts to detect extension in brightest sources

  13. Example of extended sources Abell 3581 2 SNRs in SMC Easily detected as extended in 14 second exposure

  14. XMM-Newton Slew 1(XMMSL1) Aitoff projection

  15. X-ray All-Sky Surveys : Flux limits • RASS: 5.0x10-13 (92% of sky) • EMSS: 3.0x10-12 (2% 0f sky) • HEAO-1: 3.6x10-11 (all-sky) • Exosat: 5.0x10-11 (98% of sky) • RXTE: 1.0x10-11 (all-sky), but with only 1° positional accuracy XMMSL1: 6(4.5) 10-13 ergs s-1 cm-2 in the soft band (0.2-2.0 keV) 4(3) 10-12 ergs s-1 cm-2 in the hard band (2-10 keV)

  16. Sources detected in separate slews • - Source detected in 3 separate slews: • Rev 0570, Rev 0573, Rev 0574 • Known ROSAT source • Evidence for variability (factor ~2)

  17. Correlations Slew-soft with ROSAT Mean XMM/ROSAT ~ 10 We can study source variability ROSAT XMM soft

  18. Mrk 352 ESO443-IG005 MCG 04-53-021 NGC5899 Galaxies Non-RASS

  19. Merging Galaxy Pairs NGC 4748 II Zw 742

  20. More sources... Several LMXB at few hundred c/s N132D

  21. Conclusions • 220 slews source-searched (using best strategies): • 4013 sources (after removing spurious sources) • Sky coverage: ~6300 deg2 (~15% of sky) • ~0.65 sources per square degree • XMM-Slew positional accuracy ~8″ • Soft X-ray band detection limit close to ROSAT BS catalogue • Hard X-ray band detection limit deepest ever: • > 10 × deeper than EXOSAT, HEAO-1 • ~ 2.5 × deeper than RXTE (only has 1° positional accuracy) • Topics under current investigation: optical correlation, refinement of spurious detection, source extension strategy, recovering science from high-background slews • Aim to issue first slew source catalogue (XMMSL1) before end of 2005 • Provide an upper limit server in 2006

More Related