SWXCS: Swift X-Ray Telescope Catalog of Galaxy Clusters and Groups

The Swift X-ray Cluster Survey (SWXCS) catalog contains positions and soft X-ray fluxes for a flux-limited sample of galaxy cluster and group candidates. It includes 263 candidates, with 126 new detections, derived from archival Swift XRT data acquired between February 2005 and November 2012. This table was created by NASA's HEASARC in March 2015 based on the reference paper.

Use Cases

• Identifying new galaxy cluster candidates based on extended soft X-ray emission.
• Cross-correlating X-ray cluster detections with optical and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect catalogs.
• Analyzing the log N - log S distribution for comparison with previous deep X-ray surveys.
• Studying the selection function and completeness of serendipitous cluster detection in X-ray data.

Strengths

• Catalog includes 263 candidate galaxy clusters and groups.
• Selection process used extensive simulations to evaluate contamination and completeness.
• Covers a total solid angle of approximately 400 square degrees from ~3000 useful fields.
• Flux limit is defined as 7 x 10^-15 erg/cm^2/s in the 0.5-2.0 keV band.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Redshift information is available for only 158 sources (60% of the sample).

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA HEASARC)

Collection Method

Created from archival X-ray telescope (XRT) data on board the Swift satellite, processed with the EXSdetect software.

Time Range

2005 February to 2012 November

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 16:32:15.439088; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Observations restricted to fields with Galactic latitude |b| > 20 degrees to avoid high H I column density regions.