The first XMM-newton slew survey catalogue: XMMSL1

Abstract

Aims.We report on the production of a large area, shallow, sky survey, from XMM-Newton slews. The great collecting area of the mirrors coupled with the high quantum efficiency of the EPIC detectors have made XMM-Newton the most sensitive X-ray observatory flown to date. We use data taken with the EPIC-pn camera during slewing manoeuvres to perform an X-ray survey of the sky. Methods. Data from 218 slews have been subdivided into small images and source searched. This has been done in three distinct energy bands; a soft (0.2-2 keV) band, a hard (2-12 keV) band and a total XMM-Newton band (0.2-12 keV). Detected sources, have been quality controlled to remove artifacts and a catalogue has been drawn from the remaining sources. Results.A "full" catalogue, containing 4710 detections and a "clean" catalogue containing 2692 sources have been produced, from 14% of the sky. In the hard X-ray band (2-12 keV) 257 sources are detected in the clean catalogue to a flux limit of 4$\times$10-12 ergs s-1 cm-2. The flux limit for the soft (0.2-2 keV) band is 6$\times$10-13 ergs s-1 cm-2 and for the total (0.2-12 keV) band is 1.2$\times$10-12 ergs s-1 cm-2. The source positions are shown to have an uncertainty of 8´´ (1$\sigma$ confidence)