TY - JOUR
T1 - Optical spectroscopic classification of 35 hard X-ray sources from the Swift-BAT 70-month catalogue
AU - Marchesini, E. J.
AU - Masetti, N.
AU - Palazzi, E.
AU - Chavushyan, V.
AU - Jiménez-Bailón, E.
AU - Patiño-Álvarez, V. M.
AU - Reynaldi, V.
AU - Rojas, A. F.
AU - Saviane, I.
AU - Andruchow, I.
AU - Bassani, L.
AU - Bazzano, A.
AU - Bird, A. J.
AU - Malizia, A.
AU - Minniti, D.
AU - Monaco, L.
AU - Stephen, J. B.
AU - Ubertini, P.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Silvia Galleti for Service Mode observations at the Loiano telescope, and Roberto Gualandi, Ivan Bruni and Antonio De Blasi for night assistance; we also thank Walter Boschin for coordinating our Service Mode observations at the TNG, and Janet Torrealba, Héctor Otí-Floranes and Felipe Ramón-Fox for observations at SPM. This research has made use of the ASI Space Science Data Center Multimission Archive; it also used the NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service, the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), and the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive, which are operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This publication made use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. This research has also made use of data extracted from the Six-degree Field Galaxy Survey archive, of the SIMBAD and VIZIER databases operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France, and of the HyperLeda catalogue operated at the Observatoire de Lyon, France. V.C. and V.M.P.A. acknowledge support from CONACyT research grant No. 280789. The data used in this paper were partially based upon observations carried out at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional on the Sierra San Pedro Mártir (OAN-SPM) and Observatorio Astrofísico Guillermo Haro (OAGH) in Sonora, Mexico.
Funding Information:
We thank Silvia Galleti for Service Mode observations at the Loiano telescope, and Roberto Gualandi, Ivan Bruni and Antonio De Blasi for night assistance; we also thank Walter Boschin for coordinating our Service Mode observations at the TNG, and Janet Torrealba, H?ctor Ot?-Floranes and Felipe Ram?n-Fox for observations at SPM. This research has made use of the ASI Space Science Data Center Multimission Archive; it also used the NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service, the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), and the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive, which are operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This publication made use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. This research has also made use of data extracted from the Six-degree Field Galaxy Survey archive, of the SIMBAD and VIZIER databases operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France, and of the HyperLeda catalogue operated at the Observatoire de Lyon, France. V.C. and V.M.P.A. acknowledge support from CONACyT research grant No. 280789. The data used in this paper were partially based upon observations carried out at the Observatorio Astron?mico Nacional on the Sierra San Pedro M?rtir (OAN-SPM) and Observatorio Astrof?sico Guillermo Haro (OAGH) in Sonora, Mexico.
Funding Information:
IRAF is the Image Reduction and Analysis Facility, distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. It is available at http://iraf.noao.edu .
Funding Information:
Based on photographic data obtained using The UK Schmidt Telescope. The UK Schmidt Telescope was operated by the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, with funding from the UK Science and Engineering Research Council, until 1988 June, and thereafter by the Anglo-Australian Observatory. Original plate material is copyright (c) of the Royal Observatory Edinburgh and the Anglo-Australian Observatory. The plates were processed into the present compressed digital form with their permission. The Digitized Sky Survey was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute under US Government grant NAG W-2166 and is available at http://archive.eso.org/dss/dss .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - The nature of a substantial percentage (about one fifth) of hard X-ray sources discovered with the BAT instrument onboard the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (hereafter Swift) is unknown because of the lack of an identified longer-wavelength counterpart. Without such follow-up, an X-ray catalogue is of limited astrophysical value: we therefore embarked, since 2009, on a long-term project to uncover the optical properties of sources identified by Swift by using a large suite of ground-based telescopes and instruments. In this work, we continue our programme of characterization of unidentified or poorly studied hard X-ray sources by presenting the results of an optical spectroscopic campaign aimed at pinpointing and classifying the optical counterparts of 35 hard X-ray sources taken from the 70-month BAT catalogue. This sample was selected out of the available information about the chosen objects: either they are completely unidentified sources, or their association with a longer-wavelength counterpart is still ambiguous. With the use of optical spectra taken at six different telescopes we were able to identify the main spectral characteristics (continuum type, redshift, and emission or absorption lines) of the observed objects, and determined their nature. We identify and characterize a total of 41 optical candidate counterparts corresponding to 35 hard X-ray sources given that, because of positional uncertainties, multiple lower energy counterparts can sometimes be associated with higher energy detections. We discuss which ones are the actual (or at least most likely) counterparts based on our observational results. In particular, 31 sources in our sample are active galactic nuclei: 16 are classified as Type 1 (with broad and narrow emission lines) and 13 are classified as Type 2 (with narrow emission lines only); two more are BL Lac-type objects. We also identify one LINER, one starburst, and 3 elliptical galaxies. The remaining 5 objects are galactic sources: we identify 4 of them as cataclysmic variables, whereas one is a low mass X-ray binary.
AB - The nature of a substantial percentage (about one fifth) of hard X-ray sources discovered with the BAT instrument onboard the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (hereafter Swift) is unknown because of the lack of an identified longer-wavelength counterpart. Without such follow-up, an X-ray catalogue is of limited astrophysical value: we therefore embarked, since 2009, on a long-term project to uncover the optical properties of sources identified by Swift by using a large suite of ground-based telescopes and instruments. In this work, we continue our programme of characterization of unidentified or poorly studied hard X-ray sources by presenting the results of an optical spectroscopic campaign aimed at pinpointing and classifying the optical counterparts of 35 hard X-ray sources taken from the 70-month BAT catalogue. This sample was selected out of the available information about the chosen objects: either they are completely unidentified sources, or their association with a longer-wavelength counterpart is still ambiguous. With the use of optical spectra taken at six different telescopes we were able to identify the main spectral characteristics (continuum type, redshift, and emission or absorption lines) of the observed objects, and determined their nature. We identify and characterize a total of 41 optical candidate counterparts corresponding to 35 hard X-ray sources given that, because of positional uncertainties, multiple lower energy counterparts can sometimes be associated with higher energy detections. We discuss which ones are the actual (or at least most likely) counterparts based on our observational results. In particular, 31 sources in our sample are active galactic nuclei: 16 are classified as Type 1 (with broad and narrow emission lines) and 13 are classified as Type 2 (with narrow emission lines only); two more are BL Lac-type objects. We also identify one LINER, one starburst, and 3 elliptical galaxies. The remaining 5 objects are galactic sources: we identify 4 of them as cataclysmic variables, whereas one is a low mass X-ray binary.
KW - BL Lacertae objects: general
KW - Galaxies: Seyfert
KW - Quasars: emission lines
KW - Stars: novae, cataclysmic variables
KW - X-rays: binaries
KW - X-rays: individuals
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072982835&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10509-019-3642-9
DO - 10.1007/s10509-019-3642-9
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85072982835
SN - 0004-640X
VL - 364
JO - Astrophysics and Space Science
JF - Astrophysics and Space Science
IS - 9
M1 - 153
ER -