The XMM-Newton Wide-Field Survey in the COSMOS Field. I. Survey Description
Abstract
We present the first set of XMM-Newton EPIC observations in the 2 deg2 COSMOS field. The strength of the COSMOS project is the unprecedented combination of a large solid angle and sensitivity over the whole multiwavelength spectrum. The XMM-Newton observations are very efficient in localizing and identifying active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and clusters, as well as groups of galaxies. One of the primary goals of the XMM-Newton Cosmos survey is to study the coevolution of active galactic nuclei as a function of their environment in the cosmic web. Here we present the log of observations, images, and a summary of first research highlights for the first pass of 25 XMM-Newton pointings across the field. In the existing data set we have detected 1416 new X-ray sources in the 0.5-2, 2-4.5, and 4.5-10 keV bands to an equivalent 0.5-2 keV flux limit of 7×10-16 erg cm-2 s-1. The number of sources is expected to grow to almost 2000 in the final coverage of the survey. From an X-ray color-color analysis we identify a population of heavily obscured, partially leaky or reflecting absorbers, most of which are likely to be nearby, Compton-thick AGNs.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
- Pub Date:
- September 2007
- DOI:
- 10.1086/516576
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0612311
- Bibcode:
- 2007ApJS..172...29H
- Keywords:
-
- Cosmology: Observations;
- Cosmology: Large-Scale Structure of Universe;
- Cosmology: Dark Matter;
- Galaxies: Formation;
- Galaxies: Evolution;
- X-Rays: Galaxies;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 9 pages, ApJS COSMOS Special Issue, 2007 in press. the full-resolution version is available at http://www.mpe.mpg.de/XMMCosmos/PAPERS/grh_cosmos.ps.gz