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XTE All-Sky Slew Survey Catalog

Published by High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | Metadata Last Checked: September 14, 2025 | Last Modified: 2025-09-10
The Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) All-Sky Survey Slew Catalog contains the results of a serendipitous hard X-ray (3 - 20 keV), nearly all-sky (|b|>10 degrees) survey based on observations by RXTE's Proportional Counter Array (PCA) which were performed during satellite reorientations in the period 1996 - 2002. The survey is 80% (90%) complete to a 4-sigma limiting flux of ~1.8 (2.5)x10<sup>-11</sup> erg/s/cm<sup>2</sup> 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 surveys, respectively. A combined 7 x 10<sup>3</sup> square degree area of the sky is sampled to flux levels below 10<sup>-11</sup> erg/s/cm<sup>2</sup> (3 - 20 keV). In total 294 sources are detected and localized to better than ~1 degree; 236 (80%) of these can be confidently associated with a known astrophysical object; 22 of these sources have multiple counterparts (17 have 2 counterparts and 5 have 3 counterparts) with which they have been identified, and as these are listed as separate entries, there are 321 entries in this table. 35 detected sources remain unidentified, although for 12 of these we report a likely soft X-ray counterpart from the ROSAT all-sky survey bright source catalog. Of the reliably identified sources, 63 have a local origin (Milky Way, LMC or SMC), 64 are clusters of galaxies and 100 are active galactic nuclei (AGN). The fact that the unidentified X-ray sources have hard spectra suggests that the majority of them are AGN, including highly obscured ones (hydrogen column density > 10<sup>23</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup>). This dataset enabled the authors to present for the first time a log N - log S diagram for extragalactic sources above 4 x 10<sup>-12</sup> erg/s/cm<sup>2</sup> at 8 - 20 keV. This database table was created by the HEASARC in May 2004 based on <a href="https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/J/A+A/418/927">CDS Catalog J/A+A/418/927</a>. This is a service provided by NASA HEASARC .

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