Science with the EXTraS Project: Exploring the X-ray Transient and variable Sky

Abstract

The EXTraS project (Exploring the X-ray Transient and variable Sky) will characterise the temporal behaviour of the largest ever sample of objects in the soft X-ray range (0.1-12 keV) with a complex, systematic and consistent analysis of all data collected by the European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) instrument onboard the ESA XMM-Newton X-ray observatory since its launch. We will search for, and characterize variability (both periodic and aperiodic) in hundreds of thousands of sources spanning more than nine orders of magnitude in time scale and six orders of magnitude in flux. We will also search for fast transients, missed by standard image analysis. Our analysis will be completed by multiwavelength characterization of new discoveries and phenomenological classification of variable sources. All results and products will be made available to the community in a public archive, serving as a reference for a broad range of astrophysical investigations.

4 pages, 1 figure. Refereed Proceeding of "The Universe of Digital Sky Surveys" conference held at the INAF - Observatory of Capodimonte, Naples, on 25th-28th November 2014, to be published in the Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, edited by Longo, Napolitano, Marconi, Paolillo, Iodice

References in corpus (4)

• The strongest cosmic magnets: Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters and Anomalous X-ray Pulsars
• The XMM-Newton serendipitous survey. VII. The third XMM-Newton serendipitous source catalogue
• Results from DROXO IV. EXTraS discovery of an X-ray flare from the Class I protostar candidate ISO-Oph 85
• An overview of the EXTraS project: Exploring the X-ray Transient and Variable Sky

Cited by in corpus (16)

• An accreting pulsar with extreme properties drives an ultraluminous x-ray source in NGC 5907
• Evidence for Pulsar-like Emission Components in the Broadband ULX Sample
• Blasts from the Past: Supernova Shock Breakouts among X-Ray Transients in the XMM-Newton Archive
• The XMM-Newton serendipitous survey. VIII: The first XMM-Newton serendipitous source catalogue from overlapping observations
• Activity and rotation of the X-ray emitting Kepler stars
• Searching for fast extragalactic X-ray transients in Chandra surveys
• The slow heartbeats of an ultra-luminous X-ray source in NGC 3621
• A Systematic Analysis of the XMM-Newton Background: I. Dataset and Extraction Procedures
• Analysis of the unconcentrated background of the EPIC-pn camera on board XMM-Newton
• Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients uncovered by the EXTraS project: flares reveal the development of magnetospheric instability in accreting neutron stars
• A Multi-wavelength search for Black Widows and Redbacks counterparts of candidate $\gamma$-ray millisecond pulsars
• Discovery of periodic dips in the brightest hard X-ray source of M31 with EXTraS
• A science gateway for Exploring the X-ray Transient and variable sky using EGI Federated Cloud
• Discovery of 3 s pulsations from the Brightest Hard X-ray Source in M31
• The first orbital period of a very bright and fast Nova in M31: M31N 2013-01b
• A citizen science exploration of the X-ray transient sky using the EXTraS science gateway