First AGILE Catalog of High Confidence Gamma-Ray Sources

TL;DR

This paper presents the first high-confidence gamma-ray source catalog from the AGILE satellite, covering observations from 2007-2008, identifying 47 sources including pulsars, blazars, and other objects, based on a conservative analysis of gamma-ray data.

Contribution

It provides the first AGILE gamma-ray source catalog with high-confidence detections, using a conservative data analysis approach over a one-year period.

Findings

Catalog includes 47 gamma-ray sources.

21 associated with pulsars, 13 with blazars.

Detection significance set at 4 sigma.

Abstract

We present the first catalog of high-confidence gamma-ray sources detected by the AGILE satellite during observations performed from July 9, 2007 to June 30, 2008. Catalogued sources are detected by merging all the available data over the entire time period. AGILE, launched in April 2007, is an ASI mission devoted to gamma-ray observations in the 30 MeV - 50 GeV energy range, with simultaneous X-ray imaging capability in the 18-60 keV band. This catalog is based on Gamma-Ray Imaging Detector (GRID) data for energies greater than 100 MeV. For the first AGILE catalog we adopted a conservative analysis, with a high-quality event filter optimized to select gamma-ray events within the central zone of the instrument Field of View (radius of 40 degrees). This is a significance-limited (4 sigma) catalog, and it is not a complete flux-limited sample due to the non-uniform first year AGILE sky coverage. The catalog includes 47 sources, 21 of which are associated with confirmed or candidate pulsars, 13 with Blazars (7 FSRQ, 4 BL Lacs, 2 unknown type), 2 with HMXRBs, 2 with SNRs, 1 with a colliding-wind binary system, 8 with unidentified sources.