Abstract
To provide the census of the sources contributing to the X-ray background peak above 10 keV, Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) is performing extragalactic surveys using a three-tier "wedding cake" approach. We present the NuSTAR survey of the COSMOS field, the medium sensitivity, and medium area tier, covering 1.7 deg2 and overlapping with both Chandra and XMM-Newton data. This survey consists of 121 observations for a total exposure of ∼3 Ms. To fully exploit these data, we developed a new detection strategy, carefully tested through extensive simulations. The survey sensitivity at 20% completeness is 5.9, 2.9, and 6.4 x 10-14 erg cm-2 s-1 in the 3-24, 3-8, and 8-24 keV bands, respectively. By combining detections in 3 bands, we have a sample of 91 NuSTAR sources with 1042-1045.5 erg s-1 luminosities and redshift z = 0.04-2.5. Thirty-two sources are detected in the 8-24 keV band with fluxes similar to 100 times fainter than sources detected by Swift-BAT. Of the 91 detections, all but 4 are associated with a Chandra and/or XMM-Newton point-like counterpart. One source is associated with an extended lower energy X-ray source. We present the X-ray (hardness ratio and luminosity) and optical-to-X-ray properties. The observed fraction of candidate Compton-thick active galactic nuclei measured from the hardness ratio is between 13%-20%. We discuss the spectral properties of NuSTAR J100259+0220.6 (ID 330) at z = 0.044, with the highest hardness ratio in the entire sample. The measured column density exceeds 1024 cm-2, implying the source is Compton-thick. This source was not previously recognized as such without the >10 keV data.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 185 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
Volume | 808 |
Issue number | 2 |
Number of pages | 20 |
ISSN | 0004-637X |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |
Keywords
- Galaxies: nuclei
- X-rays: general