XMM-Newton/CFRS: Optical Identifications for X-Ray Sources in the Groth Strip

NASA HEASARC provides proposed optical identifications for X-ray sources from XMM-Newton surveys of the 3-hour and 14-hour Right Ascension fields from the Canada-France Redshift Survey, also known as the Groth Strip. The table contains identifications for 79% of the XMM-Newton sources with deep optical images, covering a flux range from ~2 x 10^-15 to 10^-13 erg/cm^2/s. This service was created by the HEASARC in July 2005 based on merged tables from a published paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Use Cases

• Cross-matching X-ray and optical sources based on the probability values (P') provided.
• Analyzing the redshift distribution of identified galaxies, which shows a strong peak at z ~ 0.7.
• Calibrating photometric redshift estimation methods using the subset of sources with spectroscopic redshifts.
• Studying the properties of optically faint, high-redshift X-ray sources that lack identifications.

Strengths

• Optical identifications are provided for 79% of the XMM-Newton sources with deep optical images.
• Photometric redshifts are estimated, calibrated using ~200 galaxies in the fields with spectroscopic redshifts.
• X-ray sources cover a defined 0.5 - 10 keV flux range from ~2 x 10^-15 to 10^-13 erg/cm^2/s.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect observational bias inherent to the specific survey fields and instrument sensitivity.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC).

Collection Method

Created based on the combination of CDS tables J/MNRAS/350/785/tablea34.dat and J/MNRAS/350/785/tablea56.dat from a published paper.

Time Range

Observational data from the XMM-Newton surveys; table created in July 2005.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 19:15:58.858285; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Covers the 3-hour and 14-hour Right Ascension fields from the Canada-France Redshift Survey (the Groth Strip).