A survey of hard spectrum ROSAT sources – I. X-ray source catalogue |
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| Authors: | M J Page J P D Mittaz F J Carrera |
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| Institution: | Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT;Instituto de Física de Cantabria, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Universidad de Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain |
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| Abstract: | We present a catalogue of 147 serendipitous X-ray sources selected to have hard spectra ( α <0.5) from a survey of 188 ROSAT fields. Such sources must be the dominant contributors to the X-ray background at faint fluxes. We have used Monte Carlo simulations to verify that our technique is very efficient at selecting hard sources: the survey has  10 times as much effective area for hard sources as it has for soft sources above a 0.5–2 keV flux level of 10−14 erg cm−2 s−1. The distribution of best-fitting spectral slopes of the hard sources suggests that a typical ROSAT hard source in our survey has a spectral slope α ∼0. The hard sources have a steep number flux relation (d N /d S ∝ S − γ with a best-fitting value of γ =2.72±0.12) and make up about 15 per cent of all 0.5–2 keV sources with S >10−14 erg cm−2 s−1. If their N ( S ) continues to fainter fluxes, the hard sources will comprise ∼40 per cent of sources with 5×10−15< S <10−14 erg cm−2 s−1. The population of hard sources can therefore account for the harder average spectra of ROSAT sources with S <10−14 erg cm−2 s−1. They probably make a strong contribution to the X-ray background at faint fluxes and could be the solution to the X-ray background spectral paradox. |
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| Keywords: | catalogues surveys X-rays: general |
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