[3.01] The Needles in the Haystack Durvey. Searching for normal galaxies with XMM-Newton

8th HEAD Meeting, 8-11 September, 2004
Session 3 Surveys and the Cosmic X-ray Background
Poster, Wednesday, September 8, 2004, 9:00am-10:00pm

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[3.01] The Needles in the Haystack Durvey. Searching for normal galaxies with XMM-Newton

I. Georgantopoulos, A. Georgakakis, E. Koulouridis, M. Plionis (National Observatory of Athens), A. Zezas (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)

We present the first results from an on-going serendipitous survey aiming to identify X-ray selected `normal' galaxies (i.e. not AGN dominated) by combining archival XMM- Newton data with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In the first ~25 deg2 we have identified a total of about 50 `normal' galaxy candidates (a large fraction with SDSS spectroscopy) with fluxes f_X(0.5 - 8 keV) ~ 10^-15 - 10^-13 erg s^-1 , cm^-2. These sources are selected to have low X-ray--to--optical flux ratio (log f_X/f_opt < -2), soft X-ray spectral properties and optical spectra, when available, consistent with the presence of a stellar ionising continuum. This dataset provides the first tight constraint on the surface density of X-ray selected `normal' galaxies at relatively bright fluxes. We also discuss the prospects of `normal' galaxy X-ray surveys using both XMM-Newton and future X-ray missions such as XEUS.

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