Enhanced XMM-Newton Spectral-fit Database

3XMM spectral-fit database (XMMFITCAT)

Contents

  1. Catalogue overview
  2. Access to the spectral-fit database
  3. Access to the spectral data

Catalogue overview

The XMM-Newton spectral-fit catalogue (XMMFITCAT) contains spectral-fitting results for CATD detections, corresponding to CATS unique sources. This catalogue is produced by applying automated spectral fits to the EPIC spectral data contained within the XMM-Newton serendipitous source catalogue. The version of the catalogue used to construct the current XMMFITCAT is CATV.

CATV is the third generation catalogue of serendipitous X-ray sources from the European Space Agency's (ESA) XMM-Newton observatory, and has been created by the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre (SSC) on behalf of ESA. The CATV catalogue contains photometric information for CATD source detections, corresponding to CATS unique sources. As part of the catalogue production, spectra and time series are extracted in the case of detections with more than 100 counts collected in the EPIC camera. This corresponds to CATD detections, and CATS unique sources.

The XMM-Newton spectral-fit database is constructed by using spectral data from the CATV catalogue, but not all detections with extracted spectra are included in this database. To ensure the reliability of the spectral-fitting results, several constrains have been imposed to the number of counts collected in the X-ray spectra and as result, some detections are rejected in the automated spectral-fit pipeline (see Catalogue description for details).

Access to the spectral-fit database

The spectral-fit database consists of a FITS table with one row for each source detection, and 214 columns containing information about the observation, and spectral-fitting results for each spectral model applied (best-fit parameters and errors, fluxes, and goodness of fit). The table can be downloaded from the following link:

The XMM-Newton spectral-fit database (README)

XMMFITCAT can also be queried by using LEDAS, the astronomical database service and access to archive data at the University of Leicester. The spectral-fitting results can also be accessed by using XCAT-DB, a Web-based tool maintained by the Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg. The list of CATV spectra used in the spectral fits for each detection can be downloaded from the following link:

Spectra used in XMMFITCAT for each source detection (README)

Access to the spectral data

In the construction of this spectral-fit database, the spectral data used were the pipe-line extracted source and background spectra, and ancillary matrices provided by the XMM-Newton SSC in the CATV catalogue. Response matrices were the canned matrices provided by the XMM-Newton SOC. The database does not contain spectral data but spectral-fitting results. The spectral data used in the construction of this database can be retrieved by using any of the Web-based user interfaces listed below. Spectral data for a given source detection can be identified by using the value of the DETID column within the CATV catalogue and this spectral-fit database.