Related papers: Resolving the extragalactic hard X-ray background
The recent deep X-ray surveys at both soft (0.5--2 keV) and hard (2--10 keV) energies have greatly extended our knowledge of the X-ray source density and spectral shapes at relatively faint fluxes adding further evidence on the fact that…
The origin of the X-ray background, in particular at hard (2-10 keV) energies, has been a debated issue for more than 30 years. The Chandra deep fields provide the deepest look at the X-ray sky and are the best dataset to study the X-ray…
The fraction of the hard X-ray background (XRB) resolved into individual sources by the deep Chandra and XMM-Newton surveys strongly depends on the adopted energy range and decreases with increasing energy. As a consequence, the nature of…
The connection between the sub-mm and the hard X-ray backgrounds is studied by comparing data at 2-10 keV and at 850um for a sample of 34 sources at fluxes (or limiting fluxes) which resolve most of the background in the two bands. These…
With recent Chandra observations, at least 60% of the 2-10 keV background is now resolved into discrete sources. Here we present deep optical, NIR, submm, and 20 cm (radio) images, as well as high-quality optical spectra, of a complete…
Radiation in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-ray holds clues to the location of the missing baryons, the energetics in stellar feedback processes, and the cosmic enrichment history. Additionally, EUV and soft X-ray photons help…
We present the X-ray source number counts in two energy bands (0.5-2 and 2-10 keV) from a very large source sample: we combine data of six different surveys, both shallow wide field and deep pencil beam, performed with three different…
Hard X-ray selection is the most efficient way to discriminate between accretion-powered sources, such as AGN, from sources dominated by starlight. Hard X-rays are also less affected than other bands by obscuration. We have then carried out…
Optical spectroscopy has enabled us to identify the optical counterparts to over 200 faint X-ray sources to a flux limit of S_(0.5-2keV)=4x10^-15 erg s^-1 cm^-2 on 5 deep ROSAT fields. Here we present a spectral analysis of all the X-ray…
Several models for the hard X-ray Background (XRB) suggest that it is due to the emission from heavily obscured AGN. Recent studies have revealed the presence of a new population of hard X-ray sources which must contribute significantly to…
We present here the analysis of X-rays point sources detected in several observations available in the XMM-Newton public archive. We focused, in particular, on energies below 1 keV, which are of particular relevance to the understanding of…
Deep X-ray surveys have shown that the cosmic X-ray background (XRB) is largely due to the accretion onto supermassive black holes, integrated over cosmic time. The ROSAT, Chandra and XMM-Newton satellites have resolved more than 80% of the…
We observed several nearby face-on spiral galaxies with the ROSAT PSPC. The apparent deficiency in soft X-ray surface brightness observed at the outer portion of their disks is consistent with the absorption of the extragalactic soft X-ray…
We present a measurement of the surface brightness of the cosmic X-ray background (CXB) in the Chandra Deep Fields, after excluding all detected X-ray, optical and infrared sources. The work is motivated by a recent X-ray stacking analysis…
We present preliminary results from a XMM-Newton spectroscopic survey of hard (2 -10 keV) X-ray sources detected serendipitously in seven EPIC FOVs. All observations were performed during the performance/verif ication phase. The resulting…
We present the results of the deepest optically identified X-ray survey yet made. The X-ray survey was made with the ROSAT PSPC and reaches a flux limit of 1.6x10^-15 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.5--2.0 keV). Above a flux limit of 2x10^-15 erg cm^-2…
We present a catalogue of 147 serendipitous X-ray sources selected to have hard spectra (alpha < 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…
Although about 40% of the soft X-ray background emission in 0.4 to 1 keV range has extragalactic origins and thus is totally blocked by the Galactic absorption in midplane directions, it decreases at most by about 20 % in midplane. Suzaku…
Multiwavelength observations of the hard X-ray selected sources by Chandra and XMM-Newton surveys have significantly improved our knowledge of the objects responsible of the hard X-ray background. A surprising finding is the discovery of a…
Most of the soft and a growing fraction of the harder X-ray background has been resolved into emission from point sources, yet the resolved fraction above 7 keV has only been poorly constrained. We use ~700 ks of XMM-Newton observations of…