INTEGRAL/IBIS nine-year Galactic Hard X-Ray Survey

TL;DR

This nine-year survey of the Galactic plane in hard X-rays using INTEGRAL/IBIS provides a comprehensive catalog of 402 sources, enabling detailed population studies of Galactic and extragalactic objects.

Contribution

The paper presents the deepest Galactic hard X-ray survey to date, with new sky images, sensitivity maps, and a catalog of sources based on nine years of data, improving source detection and identification.

Findings

402 sources detected in the 17-60 keV band.

92% identification completeness for Galactic sources.

Catalog includes diverse Galactic and extragalactic objects.

Abstract

Context. The INTEGRAL observatory operating in a hard X-ray/gamma domain has gathered a large observational data set over nine years starting in 2003. Most of the observing time was dedicated to the Galactic source population study, making possible the deepest Galactic survey in hard X-rays ever compiled. Aims. We aim to perform a Galactic survey that can be used as the basis of Galactic source population studies, and perform mapping of the Milky Way in hard X-rays over the maximum exposure available at |b|<17.5 deg. Methods. We used sky reconstruction algorithms especially developed for the high quality imaging of INTEGRAL/IBIS data. Results. We present sky images, sensitivity maps, and catalogs of detected sources in the three energy bands 17-60, 17-35, and 35-80 keV in the Galactic plane at |b|<17.5 deg. The total number of sources in the reference 17-60 keV band includes 402 objects exceeding a 4.7 sigma detection threshold on the nine-year time-averaged map. Among the identified sources with known and tentatively identified natures, 253 are Galactic objects (108 low-mass X-ray binaries, 82 high-mass X-ray binaries, 36 cataclysmic variables, and 27 are of other types), and 115 are extragalactic objects, including 112 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and 3 galaxy clusters. The sample of Galactic sources with S/N>4.7 sigma has an identification completeness of ~92%, which is valuable for population studies. Since the survey is based on the nine-year sky maps, it is optimized for persistent sources and may be biased against finding transients.