The XMM-Newton serendipitous survey . II. First results from the AXIS high galactic latitude medium sensitivity survey

We present the first results on the identifications of a medium sensitivity survey (X-ray flux limit 2x 10^-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 in the 0.5-4.5 keV band) at high galactic latitude ({\mid}b{\mid}>20^deg) carried out with the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory within the AXIS observing programme. This study is being conducted as part of the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre activities towards the identification of the sources in the X-ray serendipitous sky survey. The sample contains 29 X-ray sources in a solid angle of 0.26deg ² (source density 113+/- 21 sources deg ^-2), out of which 27 (93%) have been identified. The majority of the sources are broad-line AGN (19), followed by narrow emission line X-ray emitting galaxies (6, all of which turn out to be AGN), 1 nearby non-emission line galaxy (NGC 4291) and 1 active coronal star. Among the identified sources we find 2 broad-absorption line QSOs (z ~ 1.8 and z ~ 1.9), which constitute ~ 10% of the AGN population at this flux level, similar to optically selected samples. Identifications of a further 10 X-ray sources fainter than our survey limit are also presented. Based on observations obtained with XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and the USA (NASA).