SPIDERS: selection of spectroscopic targets using AGN candidates detected in all-sky X-ray surveys
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Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
Abstract
SPIDERS (SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources) is a Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV) survey running in parallel to the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) cosmology project. SPIDERS will obtain optical spectroscopy for large numbers of X-ray-selected active galactic nuclei (AGN) and galaxy cluster members detected in wide-area eROSITA, XMM-Newton and ROSAT surveys. We describe the methods used to choose spectroscopic targets for two sub-programmes of SPIDERS X-ray selected AGN candidates detected in the ROSAT All Sky and the XMM-Newton Slew surveys. We have exploited a Bayesian cross-matching algorithm, guided by priors based on mid-IR colourmagnitude information from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer survey, to select the most probable optical counterpart to each X-ray detection. We empirically demonstrate the high fidelity of our counterpart selection method using a reference sample of bright welllocalized X-ray sources collated from XMM-Newton, Chandra and Swift-XRT serendipitous catalogues, and also by examining blank-sky locations. We describe the down-selection steps which resulted in the final set of SPIDERS-AGN targets put forward for spectroscopy within the eBOSS/TDSS/SPIDERS survey, and present catalogues of these targets. We also present catalogues of similar to 12 000 ROSAT and similar to 1500 XMM-Newton Slew survey sources that have existing optical spectroscopy from SDSS-DR12, including the results of our visual inspections. On completion of the SPIDERS programme, we expect to have collected homogeneous spectroscopic redshift information over a footprint of similar to 7500 deg(2) for > 85 per cent of the ROSAT and XMM-Newton Slew survey sources having optical counterparts in the magnitude range 17 < r < 22.5, producing a large and highly complete sample of bright X-ray-selected AGN suitable for statistical studies of AGN evolution and clustering.
Description
Keywords
surveys, galaxies: active, quasars: general, galaxies: Seyfert, cosmology: observations, X-rays: galaxies, ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI, POINT-SOURCE CATALOG, DATA RELEASE, MIDINFRARED SELECTION, HELLAS2XMM SURVEY, ANGULAR MASKS, 1ST DATA, SDSS, BRIGHT, IDENTIFICATION