The XMM-Newton serendipitous ultraviolet source survey catalogue

TL;DR

The XMM-Newton Serendipitous Ultraviolet Source Survey catalogue compiles UV sources detected by XMM-OM, providing extensive data on positions, magnitudes, fluxes, and variability for over 750,000 detections across 29-54 square degrees, enabling diverse astrophysical studies.

Contribution

This paper presents the first comprehensive catalogue of UV sources from XMM-OM, including detailed measurements, variability data, and analysis of source types, expanding the available resources for UV astrophysics research.

Findings

Catalogue contains 753,578 UV source detections.

Over 20% of sources observed multiple times per filter.

Sources are mainly star-forming galaxies and G-type stars.

Abstract

The XMM-Newton Serendipitous Ultraviolet Source Survey (XMM-SUSS) is a catalogue of ultraviolet (UV) sources detected serendipitously by the Optical Monitor (XMM-OM) on-board the XMM-Newton observatory. The catalogue contains ultraviolet-detected sources collected from 2,417 XMM-OM observations in 1-6 broad band UV and optical filters, made between 24 February 2000 and 29 March 2007. The primary contents of the catalogue are source positions, magnitudes and fluxes in 1 to 6 passbands, and these are accompanied by profile diagnostics and variability statistics. The XMM-SUSS is populated by 753,578 UV source detections above a 3 sigma signal-to-noise threshold limit which relate to 624,049 unique objects. Taking account of substantial overlaps between observations, the net sky area covered is 29-54 square degrees, depending on UV filter. The magnitude distributions peak at 20.2, 20.9 and 21.2 in UVW2, UVM2 and UVW1 respectively. More than 10 per cent of sources have been visited more than once using the same filter during XMM-Newton operation, and > 20 per cent of sources are observed more than once per filter during an individual visit. Consequently, the scope for science based on temporal source variability on timescales of hours to years is broad. By comparison with other astrophysical catalogues we test the accuracy of the source measurements and define the nature of the serendipitous UV XMM-OM source sample. The distributions of source colours in the UV and optical filters are shown together with the expected loci of stars and galaxies, and indicate that sources which are detected in multiple UV bands are predominantly star-forming galaxies and stars of type G or earlier.