A serendipitous survey for galaxy clusters by the XMM-Newton Survey Science Center
Abstract
We describe the initial results of a programme to detect and identify extended X-ray sources found serendipitously in XMM-Newton observations. We have analysed 186 EPIC-PN images at high galactic latitude with a limiting flux of 1× 10-14 and found 62 cluster candidates. Thanks to the enhanced sensitivity of the XMM-Newton telescopes, the new clusters found in this pilot study are on the average fainter, more compact, and more distant than those found in previous X-ray surveys. At our survey limit the surface density of clusters is about 5 deg-2. We also present the first results of an optical follow-up programme aiming at the redshift measurement of a large sample of clusters. The results of this pilot study give a first glimpse on the potential of serendipitous cluster science with XMM-Newton based on real data. The largest, yet to be fulfilled promise is the identification of a large number of high-redshift clusters for cosmological studies up to z=1 or 1.5.
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