Log N - Log S Relations and Spectral Properties of Sources from the ASCA Large Sky Survey --- their Implications for the Origin of the Cosmic X-ray Background (CXB)

We provide a highly concise overview of what X-ray surveys and their multiwavelength follow-up have revealed about the nature of the cosmic X-ray background (CXRB) and its constituent sources. We first describe early global studies of the CXRB, the development of imaging CXRB surveys, and the resolved CXRB fraction. Second, we detail the sources detected in CXRB surveys describing their identification, classification, and basic nature. Third, since active galactic nuclei (AGN...

We present the X-ray source catalog in the Subaru/XMM-Newton deep survey. A continuous area of 1.14 deg^2 centered at R.A. = 02h18m and Dec. = -05d is mapped by seven pointings with XMM-Newton covering the 0.2-10 keV band. From the combined images of the EPIC pn and MOS cameras, we detect 866, 1114, 645, and 136 sources with sensitivity limits of 6x10^{-16}, 8x10^{-16}, 3x10^{-15}, and 5x10^{-15} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1} in the 0.5-2, 0.5-4.5, 2-10, and 4.5-10 keV bands, respective...

We present the first unbiased source catalog of the Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI) mission at high Galactic latitudes ($|b| > 10^{\circ}$), produced from the first 7-month data (2009 September 1 to 2010 March 31) of the Gas Slit Camera in the 4--10 keV band. We develop an analysis procedure to detect faint sources from the MAXI data, utilizing a maximum likelihood image fitting method, where the image response, background, and detailed observational conditions are take...

Since the discovery of the cosmic X-ray background (CXB), astronomers have strived to understand the accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs) contributing to its peak in the 10-40 keV band. Existing soft X-ray telescopes could study this population up to only 10 keV, and, while NuSTAR (focusing on 3--24 keV) made great progress, it also left significant uncertainties in characterizing the hard X-ray population, crucial for calibrating current population synthesis models. Th...

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 the BeppoSAX High Energy Large Area Survey (HELLAS) in the largely unexplored 5-10 keV band, finding 180 sources in ~50 deg^2 of sky with flux >5E-14 erg cm-2 s-1. After correction for the non uniform sky coverage this corresponds to resol...

We report results of a serendipitous hard X-ray (3--20 keV), nearly all-sky (|b|>10deg) survey based on RXTE/PCA observations performed during satellite reorientations in 1996--2002. The survey is 80% (90%) complete to a 4$\sigma$ limiting flux of ~1.8 (2.5) e-11 erg/s/cm2 in the 3--20 keV band. The achieved sensitivity in the 3--8 keV and 8--20 keV subbands is similar to and an order of magnitude higher than that of the previously record HEAO-1 A1 and HEAO-1 A4 all-sky surve...

The BeppoSAX High Energy Large Area Survey (HELLAS) has surveyed about 85 deg^2 of sky in the 5-10 keV band down to a flux of 4-5 10^-14 erg cm-2 s-1. The source surface density of 16.9+-6.4 deg$^{-2}$ at the survey limit corresponds to a resolved fraction of the 5-10 keV X-ray background (XRB) of the order of 20-30 %. Hardness ratios analysis indicates that the spectra of a substantial fraction of the HELLAS sources (at least one third) are harder than a alpha_E = 0.6 power ...

The integrated emission of highly obscured AGN is expected to provide a major contribution to the X-ray energy density in the Universe: the X-ray background (XRB). The study of these objects is possible only at energies where the effects of absorption are less severe. For this reason we have carried out the BeppoSAX High Energy LLarge Area Survey in the hardest band (5-10 keV) accessible so far with imaging X-ray instruments. The source surface density at the survey limiting ...

In this concluding part of the series of three papers dedicated to the Swift/BAT hard X-ray survey (BXS), we focus on the X-ray spectral analysis and statistical properties of the source sample. Using a dedicated method to extract time-averaged spectra of BAT sources we show that Galactic sources have, generally, softer spectra than extragalactic objects and that Seyfert 2 galaxies are harder than Seyfert 1s. The averaged spectrum of all Seyfert galaxies is consistent with a ...

We present the statistical evaluation of a count rate and area limited complete sample of the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS) comprising 674 sources. The RASS sources are located in six study areas outside the galactic plane (|b^II| >= 20 deg) and north of delta = -9 deg. The total sample contains 274 (40.7%) stars, 26 (3.9%) galaxies, 284 (42.1%) AGN, 78 (11.6%) clusters of galaxies and 12 (1.8%) unidentified sources. These percentages vary considerably between the individual st...