AGN behind the SMC selected from radio and X-ray surveys

Abstract

The XMM-Newton survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) revealed 3053 X-ray sources with the majority expected to be active galactic nuclei (AGN) behind the SMC. However, the high stellar density in this field often does not allow assigning unique optical counterparts and hinders source classification. On the other hand, the association of X-ray point sources with radio emission can be used to select background AGN with high confidence, and to constrain other object classes like pulsar wind nebula. To classify X-ray and radio sources, we use clear correlations of X-ray sources found in the XMM-Newton survey with radio-continuum sources detected with ATCA and MOST. Deep radio-continuum images were searched for correlations with X-ray sources of the XMM-Newton SMC-survey point-source catalogue as well as galaxy clusters seen with extended X-ray emission. Eighty eight discrete radio sources were found in common with the X-ray point-source catalogue in addition to six correlations with extended X-ray sources. One source is identified as a Galactic star and eight as galaxies. Eight radio sources likely originate in AGN that are associated with clusters of galaxies seen in X-rays. One source is a PWN candidate. We obtain 43 new candidates for background sources located behind the SMC. A total of 24 X-ray sources show jet-like radio structures.

9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (8)

• The XMM-Newton Serendipitous Survey. V. The Second XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalogue
• X-ray spectral properties of AGN in the Chandra Deep Field South
• X-Ray Spectroscopy of Stars
• The XMM-Newton survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud: The X-ray point-source catalogue
• The Magellanic Quasars Survey. III. Spectroscopic Confirmation of 758 AGNs Behind the Magellanic Clouds
• Discovery of 5000 Active Galactic Nuclei behind the Magellanic Clouds
• New XMM-Newton observations of SNRs in the SMC
• 20-CM radio-continuum study of the SMC: Part III - Compact HII Regions

Cited by in corpus (6)

• High-Mass X-ray binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The supernova remnant population of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Neutron Stars and Black Holes in the Small Magellanic Cloud: The SMC NuSTAR Legacy Survey
• Identification of AGN in the XMM-Newton X-ray survey of the SMC
• The TRAPUM Small Magellanic Cloud pulsar survey with MeerKAT: I. Discovery of seven new pulsars and two Pulsar Wind Nebula associations
• A Multi-Frequency Study of the Milky Way-like Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744