SRG/ART-XC all-sky X-ray survey: catalog of sources detected during the first year

Abstract

We present a first catalog of sources detected by the Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC telescope on board the SRG observatory in the 4–12 keV energy band during its ongoing all-sky survey. The catalog comprises 867 sources detected on the combined map of the first two 6-month scans of the sky (December 2019 – December 2020), ART-XC sky surveys 1 and 2, or ARTSS12. The achieved sensitivity to point sources varies between ∼ 4 × 10−12 erg s−1 cm−2 near the ecliptic plane and ∼ 8 × 10−13 erg s−1 cm−2 (4–12 keV) near the ecliptic poles, and the typical localization accuracy is ∼ 15′′. Of the 750 sources of known or suspected origin in the catalog, 56% are extragalactic (mostly active galactic nuclei, AGN; and clusters of galaxies) and the rest are Galactic (mostly cataclysmic variables, CVs; and lowand high-mass X-ray binaries). For 114 sources, ART-XC has detected X-rays for the first time. Although the majority of these (∼ 80) are expected to be spurious (given the adopted detection threshold), there can be a significant number of newly discovered astrophysical objects. We have started a program of optical follow-up observations of the new and previously unidentified X-ray sources, which has already led to the identification of several AGN and CVs. With the SRG all-sky survey planned to continue for a total of four years, we can expect the ART-XC survey in the 4–12 keV band to significantly surpass previous surveys that were carried out in similar (medium X-ray) energy bands in terms of the combination of angular resolution, sensitivity, and sky coverage.