Search

During the first all-sky survey of the SRG orbital observatory, the X-ray source SRGE J170245.3+130104 was discovered with the eROSITA telescope on March 13–15, 2020. Its optical counterpart was identified by photometric attributes as a candidate for distant quasars at $$z\approx 5.5$$ . The spectroscopic observations of the object carried out in August and September 2020 at the 6-m BTA telescope with the SCORPIO-II instrument confirmed that SRGE J170245.3+130104 is a quasar at redshift $$z_{\textrm{{spec}}}=5.466\pm 0.003$$ . According to the eROSITA data obtained during the first sky survey, the X-ray luminosity of the quasar is $$3.6^{+2.1}_{-1.5}\times 10^{46}$$ erg s $${}^{-1}$$ in the 2–10 keV energy band, while its X-ray spectrum can be approximately fitted by a power law with a slope $$\Gamma=1.8^{+0.9}_{-0.8}$$ . The quasar was detected again with the eROSITA telescope half a year later (on September 13–14, 2020) during the second sky survey, with its X-ray luminosity, probably, having decreased approximately by a factor of 2 at a confidence level $${\approx}1.9\sigma$$ . SRGE J170245.3+130104 has turned out to be the most X-ray luminous quasar among all of the known quasars at redshifts $$z>5$$ . At the same time, it is also one of the radio loudest distant quasars (radio loudness $$R\sim 10^{3}$$ ), which may imply that this is a blazar. We present a catalog of all the quasars at $$z>5$$ detected in X-rays to date.

We present the first results of our program of optical observations for galaxy clusters from the Lockman Hole X-ray survey with the eROSITA telescope onboard the SRG space observatory. We present the results of spectroscopic redshift measurements for 11 galaxy clusters that have been identified optically among the extended X-ray sources of the SRG/eROSITA survey using data from optical and infrared sky surveys. The spectroscopic observations were carried out in late 2019–early 2020 with the 1.6-m AZT-33IK telescope of the Sayan Observatory and the 6-m SAO RAS telescope (Bolshoi Teleskop Azimutalnyi, BTA).

We present the results of our identification of eight objects from the preliminary catalogue of X-ray sources detected in the 4–12 keV energy band by the Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC telescope onboard the SRG observatory during the first all-sky survey. Three of them (SRGA J005751.0+210846, SRGA J $$014157.0{-}032915$$ , SRGA J232446.8+440756) have been discovered by the ART-XC telescope, while five have already been known previously as X-ray sources, but their nature has remained unestablished. The last five sources have also been detected in soft X-rays by the eROSITA telescope of the SRG observatory. Our optical observations have been carried out at the 1.6-m AZT-33IK telescope of the Sayan Observatory and the 1.5-m Russian–Turkish telescope (RTT-150). All of the investigated objects have turned out to be active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at redshifts from 0.019 to 0.283. Six of them are Seyfert 2 galaxies (including one Seyfert 1.9 galaxy), one (SRGA J005751.0+210846) is a ‘‘hidden’’ AGN (in an edge-on galaxy), and one (SRGA J224125.9+760343) is a narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy. The latter object is characterized by a high X-ray luminosity ( $${\sim}(2-13)\times 10^{44}$$ erg s $${}^{-1}$$ in the 4–12 keV band) and, according to our black hole mass estimate ( $${\sim}2\times 10^{7}M_{\odot}$$ ), an accretion rate close to the Eddington limit. All three AGNs discovered by the ART-XC telescope (which are not detected by the eROSITA telescope) are characterized by a high absorption column density ( $$N_{\textrm{H}}\gtrsim 3\times 10^{23}$$ cm $${}^{-2}$$ ). The results obtained confirm the expectations that the ART-XC telescope is an efficient instrument in searching for heavily obscured and other interesting AGNs in the nearby ( $$z\lesssim 0.3$$ ) Universe. The SRG sky survey will last for another 3 years or more, which must allow many such objects to be discovered.

We present the results of our spectroscopic redshift measurements for galaxy clusters detected previously from Planck all-sky survey data as well as Sloan Digital Sky Survey and WISE all-sky survey data. The redshifts have been measured for 23 clusters, including four galaxy clusters from the second Planck catalogue of Sunyaev–Zeldovich sources. The main spectroscopic observations were carried out during 2019–early 2020 at the 1.6-m AZT-33IK telescope of the Sayan Observatory and the 1.5-m Russian–Turkish telescope (RTT-150). Some of the data have been obtained previously at the 3.5-m Calar Alto telescope. Out of the 23 clusters in this sample, 14 objects are located in the half of the sky where the rights to the data from the eROSITA sky survey onboard the SRG orbital X-ray observatory belong to the Russian side. All these clusters were detected with the eROSITA telescope in the course of the sky survey during 2020. On the whole, we have measured the spectroscopic redshifts for 220 galaxy clusters within our program of optical identifications of galaxy clusters from the Planck catalogue during several years. Many of them have already been detected in the SRG/eROSITA survey; a significant fraction of these objects are among the most massive galaxy clusters of the eROSITA sky survey and will most likely enter into cosmological samples of clusters from this survey.

Based on observations with the new transient double-beam spectrograph (TDS) at the 2.5-m telescope of the Caucasus Mountain Observatory of SAI MSU, we have determined the types and found the redshifts for six new X-ray sources (four quasars and two galaxy clusters) detected by the SRG space observatory during the Lockman Hole observations at the eROSITA performance verification phase. We show that the TDS allows the spectra of objects $${\sim}20^{m}$$ to be taken in 2 h of observations with a signal-to-noise ratio higher than 5 and a resolution $$R\sim 1500$$ . The types and redshifts of the objects determined from our spectroscopic observations agree well with the predictions based on photometric data using the SRGz automatic classification system.

During a deep extragalactic Lockman Hole sky survey with an area of 18.5 sq. deg, which was conducted when the SRG observatory was flying to the Lagrange point L2, the eROSITA telescope detected $${\sim}7000$$ X-ray sources. These objects were then provisionally identified and classified using the publicly accessible data of optical and infrared sky surveys by the SRGz machine learning system developed for this purpose at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. As a result, a number of new candidates for distant quasars ( $$z\sim 4$$ ) have been selected. The spectroscopic observations of the first two candidates from this list carried out with the 1.6-m AZT-33IK telescope of the Sayan Solar Observatory have confirmed that these objects are actually distant quasars at redshifts 3.878 and 4.116 and are characterized by a high X-ray luminosity $${\sim}10^{45}$$ erg s $${}^{-1}$$ (2–10 keV). The results obtained allow one to count on the detection of a large number of distant quasars during a four-year all-sky survey of the SRG observatory begun in December 2019.

An example of simultaneous spectroscopic redshift measurements for a large number of galaxies in a cluster by multiobject spectroscopy with the medium- and low-resolution TFOSC spectrograph at the RussianTurkish 1.5-m telescope (RTT150) is presented. The redshifts of galaxies in the cluster $$0301.6+0156$$ at $$z=0.17057\pm 0.0004$$ detected previously by the SunyaevZeldovich signal in the Planck all-sky survey have been measured. The spectra of 16 cluster galaxies, 9 of which were determined as ellipticals, were taken in one observation with an exposure time of 3 h and high-quality redshift measurements were made for them. We show that the redshifts of galaxies with magnitudes to $$m_{r}=20.0$$ , whose number in the TFOSC field can reach dozens, depending on the cluster richness and distance, can be measured in one observation with the TFOSC spectrograph using multiobject masks. Such measurements may be required to refine the redshifts of clusters and to estimate their masses by the dynamical method.

We present a first catalog of sources detected by the Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC telescope on board the SRG observatory in the 4-12 keV energy band during its ongoing all-sky survey. The catalog comprises 867 sources detected on the combined map of the first two 6-month scans of the sky (December 2019 - December 2020). The achieved sensitivity to point sources varies between ~4x10^-12 erg/s/cm2 near the ecliptic plane and ~8x10^-13 erg/s/cm2 (4-12 keV) near the ecliptic poles, and the typical localization accuracy is ~15 arcsec. Of the 750 sources of known or suspected origin in the catalog, 56% are extragalactic (mostly active galactic nuclei, AGN; and clusters of galaxies) and the rest are Galactic (mostly cataclysmic variables, CVs; and low- and high-mass X-ray binaries). For 114 sources, ART-XC has detected X-rays for the first time. Although the majority of these (~80) are expected to be spurious (given the adopted detection threshold), there can be a significant number of newly discovered astrophysical objects. We have started a program of optical follow-up observations of the new and previously unidentified X-ray sources, which has already led to the identification of several AGN and CVs. With the SRG all-sky survey planned to continue for a total of four years, we can expect the ART-XC survey in the 4-12 keV band to significantly surpass previous surveys that were carried out in similar (medium X-ray) energy bands in terms of the combination of angular resolution, sensitivity, and sky coverage., To appear on A&A, Special Issue: The Early Data Release of eROSITA and Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC on the SRG Mission; 40 pages, 10 figures, the catalog of sources is included

We present the results of optical spectroscopy for 39 quasar candidates at photometric redshifts zphot ≳ 3 from the catalog by Khorunzhev et al. (2016) (K16). This is a catalog of quasar candidates and known type 1 quasars selected among the X-ray sources of the 3XMM-DR4 catalog of the XMM-Newton serendipitous survey. We have performed spectroscopy for new candidates at the 1.6-m AZT-33IK telescope of the Sayan Solar Observatory and the 6-m BTA telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory. Predominantly X-ray bright quasar candidates that could be used to construct the X-ray luminosity function at luminosities LX,2–10 > 1045 erg s−1 have been selected. The purity of the candidates from K16 with a high X-ray flux has turned out to be lower than the purity of the quasi-random sample investigated by us previously. We have estimated the observing efficiency of quasar candidates as a function of their photometric redshift.

We present the results of optical identifications and spectroscopic redshift measurements for galaxy clusters from the second Planck catalogue of Sunyaev-Zeldovich sources. We used the data of observations with the 1.5-m Russian-Turkish telescope (RTT150), the 1.6-m Sayan Observatory AZT-33IK telescope, the 3.5-m Calar Alto telescope, and the 6-m SAO RAS telescope (Bolshoi Teleskop Azimutalnyi, BTA). For the observations we selected Sunyaev-Zeldovich sources unidentified with galaxy clusters with known redshifts. The observations have been carried out for three years, as a result of which we obtained direct images in various filters for a set of galaxy clusters and spectra for the brightest red-sequence galaxies of these clusters. For 38 galaxy clusters we obtained spectroscopic redshift measurements.

The possibility of conducting a Galactic plane survey at energies above 5 keV with the ART-XC telescope onboard the Spectrum-Rontgen-Gamma (SRG) observatory during the satellite’s flight to the Lagrange point L2 is considered. One of the possible fields for such a survey is proposed. We show that it will be possible to detect ∼100 cataclysmic variables with luminosities 1031−1034 erg s−1 in a survey with an area of 10 deg2 and a duration of 10 days. Such a representative sample may allow the luminosity function and other properties of the population of cataclysmic variables in the Galaxy to be refined.

We present the first sample of tidal disruption events (TDEs) discovered during the SRG all-sky survey. These 13 events were selected among X-ray transients detected in the 0, Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 29 pages

We report the discovery of three cataclysmic variables in the data of the first year of the all-sky X-ray survey by the SRG orbital observatory. The sources were selected for their brightness in the 4-12 keV band in the data of the Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC telescope. They are also detected by the eROSITA telescope, which provides accurate localizations and spectral data for a broadband spectral analysis. All three objects were previously known as X-ray sources from the ROSAT all-sky survey and XMM-Newton slew survey, but their nature remained unknown. The X-ray spectra obtained by eROSITA and ART-XC are consistent with optically thin thermal emission with a temperature kT ≳ 18 keV for SRGA J194638.9+704552 and SRGA J225412.8+690658 and kT ≳ 5 keV for SRGAJ204547.8+672642. Together with the inferred high X-ray luminosities (2 × 1032-3 × 1033 erg s-1), this strongly suggests that all three sources are cataclysmic variables (CVs). We have obtained optical photometry and spectroscopy for these objects using the AZT-33IK 1.6 m telescope of the Sayan Observatory. The optical properties confirm the CV nature of the objects. We conclude that SRGA J194638.9+704552 is an intermediate polar, SRGA J204547.8+672642 is likely a polar or intermediate polar, and SRGA J225412.8+690658 is either a magnetic or nonmagnetic CV. We have also measured an orbital period of 2.98 h for SRGA J204547.8+672642 based on TESS data. Three out of the planned eight SRG all-sky surveys have now been completed. We expect to find many new CVs, in particular, magnetic systems, during the survey, and we plan to continue our optical follow-up program.

We report the discovery of X-ray emission from CFHQS J142952+544717, the most distant known radio-loud quasar at z=6.18, on Dec. 10--11, 2019 with the eROSITA telescope on board the SRG satellite during its ongoing all-sky survey. The object was identified by cross-matching an intermediate SRG/eROSITA source catalog with the Pan-STARRS1 distant quasar sample at 5.6 < z < 6.7. The measured flux $\sim 8 \times 10^{-14}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ in the 0.3--2 keV energy band corresponds to an X-ray luminosity of $2.6^{+1.7}_{-1.0}\times 10^{46}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in the 2--10 keV rest-frame energy band, which renders CFHQS J142952+544717 the most X-ray luminous quasar ever observed at z > 6. Combining our X-ray measurements with archival and new photometric measurements in other wavebands (radio to optical), we estimate the bolometric luminosity of this quasar at $\sim (2$--$3) \times 10^{47}$ erg s$^{-1}$. Assuming Eddington limited accretion and isotropic emission, we infer a lower limit on the mass of the supermassive black hole of $\sim 2\times 10^9 M_\odot$. The most salient feature of CFHQS J142952+544717 is its X-ray brightness relative to the optical/UV emission. We argue that it may be linked to its radio-loudness (although the object is not a blazar according to its radio properties), specifically to a contribution of inverse Compton scattering of cosmic microwave background photons off relativistic electrons in the jets. If so, CFHQS J142952+544717 might be the tip of the iceberg of high-z quasars with enhanced X-ray emission, and SRG/eROSITA may find many more such objects during its 4 year all-sky survey., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

The halo of the Milky Way provides a laboratory to study the properties of the shocked hot gas that is predicted by models of galaxy formation. There is observational evidence of energy injection into the halo from past activity in the nucleus of the Milky Way; however, the origin of this energy (star formation or supermassive-black-hole activity) is uncertain, and the causal connection between nuclear structures and large-scale features has not been established unequivocally. Here we report soft-X-ray-emitting bubbles that extend approximately 14 kiloparsecs above and below the Galactic centre and include a structure in the southern sky analogous to the North Polar Spur. The sharp boundaries of these bubbles trace collisionless and non-radiative shocks, and corroborate the idea that the bubbles are not a remnant of a local supernova but part of a vast Galaxy-scale structure closely related to features seen in gamma-rays. Large energy injections from the Galactic centre are the most likely cause of both the {\gamma}-ray and X-ray bubbles. The latter have an estimated energy of around 10$^{56}$ erg, which is sufficient to perturb the structure, energy content and chemical enrichment of the circumgalactic medium of the Milky Way., Comment: Author's version. 17 pages, 5 figures, Published in Nature 2020, Vol 588

We investigate the prospects of the SRG mission in searches for the keV-scale mass sterile neutrino dark matter radiatively decaying into active neutrino and photon. The ongoing all-sky X-ray survey of the SRG space observatory with data acquired by the ART-XC and eROSITA telescopes can provide a possibility to fully explore the resonant production mechanism of the dark matter sterile neutrino, which exploits the lepton asymmetry in the primordial plasma consistent with cosmological limits from the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. In particular, it is shown that at the end of the four year all-sky survey, the sensitivity of the eROSITA telescope near the 3.5 keV line signal reported earlier can be comparable to that of the XMM-Newton with all collected data, which will allow one to carry out another independent study of the possible sterile neutrino decay signal in this area. In the energy range below $\approx2.4$ keV, the expected constraints on the model parameters can be significantly stronger than those obtained with XMM-Newton. From the ART-XC data, in the energy range approximately from 5 to 20 keV, it can be possible to get more stringent constraints than those obtained with NuSTAR so far. We conclude that the SRG mission has a very high potential in testing the sterile neutrino dark matter hypothesis., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures; v2: refined with measured background, added new plot with expected limits for already collected data, then for 1 year and 4 years in the survey mode; v3: replaced with journal version

To choose the best strategy for conducting a deep extragalactic survey with the ART-XC X-ray telescope onboard the Spectrum–Rontgen–Gamma (SRG) observatory and to estimate the expected results, we have simulated the observations of a 1.1° × 1.1° field in the 5–11 and 8–24 keV energy bands. For this purpose, we have constructed a model of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) population that reflects the properties of the X-ray emission from such objects. The photons that “arrived” from these sources were passed through a numerical model of the telescope, while the resulting data were processed with the standard ART-XC data processing pipeline. We show that several hundred AGNs at redshifts up to z ≈ 3 will be detected in such a survey over 1.2 Ms of observations with the expected charged particle background levels. Among them there will be heavily obscured AGNs, which will allow a more accurate estimate of the fraction of such objects in the total population to be made. Source confusion is expected at fluxes below 2 × 10−14 erg s−1 cm−2 (5–11 keV). Since this value can exceed the source detection threshold in a deep survey at low particle background levels, it may turn out to be more interesting to conduct a survey of larger area (several square degrees) but smaller depth, obtaining a sample of approximately four hundred bright AGNs as a result.

During the scanning observations of the Galactic Center region in August - September 2016 we detected the new outburst of the historical X-ray nova GRS 1739-278, the black hole candidate LMXB system. In this letter we present results of INTEGRAL and Swift-XRT observations taken during the outburst. In hard X-ray band (20-60 keV) the flux from the source raised from $\sim$11 to $\sim$30 mCrab between 3 and 14 of September. For nearly 8 days the source has been observed at this flux level and then faded to $\sim$15 mCrab. The broadband quasi-simultaneous spectrum obtained during the outburst is well described by the absorbed powerlaw with the photon index $\Gamma=1.86\pm0.07$ in broad energy range 0.5-150 keV, with absorption corresponding to ${N_{H}}=2.3\times10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$ assuming solar abundance. Based on this we can conclude that the source was in the low/hard state. From the lightcurve and spectra we propose that this outburst was `failed', i.e. amount of accreted matter was not sufficient to achieve the high/soft spectral state with dominant soft blackbody component as seen in normal outbursts of black hole candidates., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy Letters, 2017, 43, 3

The capabilities of the new medium- and low-resolution spectrograph installed recently on the 1.6-m AZT-33IK telescope at the Sayan Observatory of the Institute of Solar–Terrestrial Physics to solve the problems of ground-based optical support for the future all-skyX-ray survey of the SRGobservatory are discussed. Results of the test observations of galaxy clusters, active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and quasars, and cataclysmic variables performed immediately after the installation of the spectrograph on the telescope are presented. The results of these observations show that the AZT-33IK telescope equipped with the new medium- and low-resolution spectrograph can provide a substantial fraction of the necessary optical observations in the program of ground-based optical support for the all-sky survey of the SRG observatory.

A sample of cataclysmic variables (CVs) detected among the X-ray sources of the 400 square degree (400d) survey performed based on ROSAT pointings is presented. A technique for selecting CVs among the X-ray sources using additional optical and infrared data, based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey andWISE data, is described. We present the optical observations of the selected objects carried out mainly with the Russian–Turkish 1.5-m telescope (RTT-150) and the 6-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences (BTA). Some observations have also been performed with the 1.6-m AZT-33IK telescope of the Institute of Solar–Terrestrial Physics, the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Eight CVs, four of which were detected in our work, have been selected by now. Based on this sample, we have obtained preliminary constraints on the X-ray luminosity function of CVs in the solar neighborhood in the range of low luminosities, L X ~ 1029–1030 erg s−1 (0.5–2 keV). The logarithmic slope of the CV luminosity function in this luminosity range is shown to become gentler than that at L X > 1031 erg s−1. It follows from our estimates of the CV luminosity function that several thousand CVs will be detected in the SRG all-sky survey at high Galactic latitudes, which will allow much more accurate measurements of their X-ray luminosity function to be obtained.

Based on data from the SWIFT, INTEGRAL, MAXI/ISS orbital observatories, and the ground-based RTT-150 telescope, we have investigated the broadband (from the optical to the hard X-ray bands) spectrum of the X-ray nova MAXI J1828-249 and its evolution during the outburst of the source in 2013-2014. The optical and infrared emissions from the nova are shown to be largely determined by the extension of the power-law component responsible for the hard X-ray emission. The contribution from the outer cold regions of the accretion disk, even if the X-ray heating of its surface is taken into account, turns out to be moderate during the source's "high" state (when a soft blackbody emission component is observed in the X-ray spectrum) and is virtually absent during its "low" ("hard") state. This result suggests that much of the optical and infrared emissions from such systems originates in the same region of main energy release where their hard X-ray emission is formed. This can be the Compton or synchro-Compton radiation from a high-temperature plasma in the central accretion disk region puffed up by instabilities, the synchrotron radiation from a hot corona above the disk, or the synchrotron radiation from its relativistic jets., 18 pages, 8 figures

We present the results of our optical identifications of several hard X-ray sources from the INTEGRAL all-sky survey obtained over 14 years of observations. Having improved the positions of these objects in the sky with the X-ray telescope (XRT) of the Swift observatory and the XMM-Newton observatory, we have identified their counterparts using optical and infrared sky survey data. We have obtained optical spectra for more than half of the objects from our sample with the RTT-150 and AZT-33IK telescopes, which have allowed us to establish the nature of the objects and to measure their redshifts. Six sources are shown to be extragalactic in origin and to belong to Seyfert 1 and 2 galaxies (IGR J01017+6519, IGR J08215-1320, IGR J08321-1808, IGR J16494-1740, IGR J17098-2344, IGR J17422-2108); we have failed to draw definitive conclusions about the nature of four more objects (IGR J11299-6557, IGR J14417-5533, IGR J18141-1823, IGR J18544+0839), but, judging by circumstantial evidence, they are most likely also extragalactic objects. For one more object (IGR J18044-1829) no unequivocal identification has been made., Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures

We present the results of optical identifications and spectroscopic redshifts measurements for galaxy clusters from 2-nd Planck catalogue of Sunyaev-Zeldovich sources (PSZ2), located at high redshifts, $z\approx0.7-0.9$. We used the data of optical observations obtained with Russian-Turkish 1.5-m telescope (RTT150), Sayan observatory 1.6-m telescope, Calar Alto 3.5-m telescope and 6-m SAO RAS telescope (Bolshoi Teleskop Alt-azimutalnyi, BTA). Spectroscopic redshift measurements were obtained for seven galaxy clusters, including one cluster, PSZ2 G126.57+51.61, from the cosmological sample of PSZ2 catalogue. In central regions of two clusters, PSZ2 G069.39+68.05 and PSZ2 G087.39-34.58, the strong gravitationally lensed background galaxies are found, one of them at redshift $z=4.262$. The data presented below roughly double the number of known galaxy clusters in the second Planck catalogue of Sunyaev-Zeldovich sources at high redshifts, $z\approx0.8$., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy Letters

A new method for measuring the redshifts of galaxy clusters based on photometric SDSSIII data is presented. Highly accurate photo-z measurements for red-sequence galaxies using machine learning techniques on a training sample of luminous red BOSS LOWZ galaxies allow the redshifts of clusters at z < 0.45 to be determinedwith an accuracy σnorm = 0.011. The accuracy of the proposed method has been estimated on galaxy clusters from the 400d catalog.

The possibility of an automatic search for galaxy clusters in WISE infrared images using SDSS optical data is discussed. Preliminary results of applying such a procedure to fields of the 400 square degree (400d) X-ray galaxy cluster survey performed previously based on ROSAT pointing data are presented. We show that rich galaxy clusters can be detected in the WISE infrared survey both at moderate redshifts and up to high redshifts, z ≈ 1–2. These data can be used to identify clusters detected in X-rays or via the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect.

We present the first results of our search for cataclysmic variables among the point X-ray sources detected in a part of the sky survey with an area of 400 sq. deg. performed on the basis of data from the ROSAT telescope (400d), for which photometric data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey are also available. The necessary optical observations of the candidates for cataclysmic variables have been carried out with the 1.5-m Russian-Turkish telescope (RTT-150). We show that one of the four investigated objects (400D J0019126+220733) is a cataclysmic variable, two objects are quasars at redshifts z ∼ 2, and the nature of one object remains unclarified; however, we can exclude it from the list of possible candidates for cataclysmic variables: its spectrum contains no characteristic emission features.

We have compiled a catalog of 903 quasar candidates (including known quasars) at 3 < z < 5.5 selected among X-ray sources from the XMM-Newton serendipitous survey (3XMM-DR4 catalog). We used photometric SDSS, 2MASS, and WISE data to select the objects. The surface number density of objects in our sample exceeds that in the SDSS spectroscopic quasar sample at the same redshifts by a factor of 1.5. We have performed spectroscopic observations of a subsample of new quasar candidates using a new low- and medium-resolution spectrograph at the 1.6-m AZT-33IK telescope (Mondy, Russia) and demonstrated that the purity of these candidates is about 65%. We have discovered one of the most distant (z = 5.08) X-ray selected quasars.

We present a catalogue of galaxy clusters detected in the Planck all-sky Compton parameter maps and identified using data from the WISE and SDSS surveys. The catalogue comprises about 3000 clusters in the SDSS fields. We expect the completeness of this catalogue to be high for clusters with masses larger than M_500 =~ 3x10^14 Msun, located at redshifts z, Accepted for publication in Astronomy Letters

The Astronomical Roentgen Telescope X-ray Concentrator (ART-XC) is a hard X-ray telescope with energy response up to 30 keV, to be launched on board the Spectrum Roentgen Gamma (SRG) spacecraft in 2018. ART-XC consists of seven identical co-aligned mirror modules. Each mirror assembly is coupled with a CdTe double-sided strip (DSS) focal-plane detector. Eight X-ray mirror modules (seven flight and one spare units) for ART-XC were developed and fabricated at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), NASA, USA. We present results of testing procedures performed with an X-ray beam facility at MSFC to calibrate the point spread function (PSF) of the mirror modules. The shape of the PSF was measured with a high-resolution CCD camera installed in the focal plane with defocusing of 7 mm, as required by the ART-XC design. For each module, we performed a parametrization of the PSF at various angular distances Theta. We used a King function to approximate the radial profile of the near on-axis PSF (Theta, Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables, Accepted in Experimental Astronomy

Results of quasi-simultaneous SWIFT and RTT-150 observations for the X-ray nova SWIFT J174510.8-262411 in May–June 2013 at the decaying phase of its outburst are presented. It is shown that the nova spectrum can be fitted in a very wide energy range (from the infrared z and i bands to hard X-rays) by a single power law attenuated due to absorption but without any traces of the presence of a soft (blackbody) component. The presence of such a component is suggested by the generally accepted models of disk accretion onto a black hole in a binary system. The observation of a single power-law spectrum may imply that synchrotron radiation from the source’s relativistic jets makes a major contribution to its flux or that the accretion disk is everywhere hot, optically thin, and radiates nonthermally.

Four hard X-ray sources from the INTEGRAL and Swift catalogs have been identified. X-ray and optical spectra have been obtained for each of the objects being studied by using data from the INTEGRAL, Swift, ROSAT, and Chandra X-ray observatories as well as observations with the RTT-150 and AZT-33IK optical telescopes. Two sources (SWIFT J1553.6+2606 and SWIFT J1852.2+8424) are shown to be extragalactic in nature: the first is a quasar, while the registered X-ray flux from the second is the total emission from two Seyfert 1 galaxies at redshifts 0.1828 and 0.2249. The source IGR J22534+6243 resides in our Galaxy and is an X-ray pulsar with a period of ~46.674 s that is a member of a high-mass X-ray binary, probably with a Be star. The nature of yet another Galactic source, SWIFT J1852.8+3002, is not completely clear and infrared spectroscopy is needed to establish it., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, will be publihsed in Astronomy Letters, V.39, N8, pp.513-522

The properties of the hot zone in the accretion flow near the surface of a magnetized white dwarf have been studied. For this purpose, the aperiodic optical variability of LS Peg, one of the brightest intermediate polars in the northern sky, has been investigated. The main radiation of the hot zone, which is then reemitted in the optical band, results from the radiation of an optically thin plasma heated during the passage of the accretion flow of a standing shock. Recently, Semena and Revnivtsev (2012) have shown that the aperiodic variability (flickering) of accreting magnetized white dwarfs should have a characteristic feature in the range of Fourier frequencies corresponding to the plasma cooling time in this hot region. The photometric brightness measurements for LS Peg made with the RTT-150 telescope using a high-speed ANDOR iXon CCD array have allowed the break frequency in the power spectrum of the source’s variability to be constrained. Constraints on the geometry of the accretion column for the white dwarf in LS Peg and on the plasma parameters in it have been obtained.

We present \Chandra\ observations of 23 galaxy groups and low-mass galaxy clusters at $0.03, Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, 7 tables

We present the results of spectroscopic redshift measurements for the galaxy clusters from the first all-sky Planck catalogue of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich sources, that have been mostly identified by means of the optical observations performed previously by our team (Planck Collaboration, 2015a). The data on 13 galaxy clusters at redshifts from z=~0.2 to z=~0.8, including the improved identification and redshift measurement for the cluster PSZ1 G141.73+14.22 at z=0.828, are provided. The measurements were done using the data from Russian-Turkish 1.5-m telescope (RTT-150), 2.2-m Calar Alto Observatory telescope, and 6-m SAO RAS telescope (Bolshoy Teleskop Azimutalnyi, BTA)., Comment: published in Astronomy Letters

The masses of 68 supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in nearby (z 5 degrees) have been estimated. Well-known relations between the SMBH mass and (1) the infrared luminosity of the stellar bulge (from 2MASS data) and (2) the characteristics of broad emission lines (from RTT-150 data) have been used. A comparison with the more accurate SMBH mass estimates obtained by the reverberation-mapping technique and from direct dynamical measurements is also made for several objects. The SMBH masses derived from the correlation with the bulge luminosity turn out to be systematically higher than the estimates made by other methods. The ratio of the bolometric luminosity to the critical Eddington luminosity has been found for all AGNs. It ranges from 1 to 100% for the overwhelming majority of objects., 14 pages, 8 figures

We present results of optical identifications of six hard X-ray sources from the INTEGRAL and Swift all-sky surveys (IGR J03249+4041, SWIFT J1449.5+8602, SWIFT J1542.0-1410, IGR J17009+3559, IGR J18151-1052, IGR J18538-0102). Our optical observations were performed in 2009–2011 with the 6-m BTA telescope (Special Astrophysical Observatory, Nizhnii Arkhyz, Russia) and the 1.5-m RTT-150 telescope (Turkish National Observatory, Antalya, Turkey). The optical spectra obtained for each of the program sources have allowed us to establish the nature of the objects and to measure their redshifts from the positions of emission and absorption lines. Five sources are shown to be extragalactic—four of them are identified with Seyfert 1 or 2 galaxies and the fifth source belongs to the class of X-ray-bright, optically normal galaxies (XBONGs). The sixth object (IGR J18151-1052) is located in our Galaxy and is an X-ray binary (XRB), a suspected cataclysmic variable. Apart from the optical spectra, we provide the X-ray spectra for five sources in the 0.6–10 keV energy band obtained from XRT/Swift data.

We study the optical variability of the peculiar Galactic source SS 433 using the observations made with the Russian Turkish 1.5-m telescope (RTT150). A simple technique which allows to obtain high-quality photometric measurements with 0.3-1 s time resolution using ordinary CCD is described in detail. Using the test observations of nonvariable stars, we show that the atmospheric turbulence introduces no significant distortions into the measured light curves. Therefore, the data obtained in this way are well suited for studying the aperiodic variability of various objects. The large amount of SS 433 optical light curve measurements obtained in this way allowed us to obtain the power spectra of its flux variability with a record sensitivity up to frequencies of ~0.5 Hz and to detect its break at frequency =~2.4e-3 Hz. We suggest that this break in the power spectrum results from the smoothing of the optical flux variability due to a finite size of the emitting region. Based on our measurement of the break frequency in the power spectrum, we estimated the size of the accretion-disk photosphere as 2e12 cm. We show that the amplitude of the variability in SS 433 decreases sharply during accretion-disk eclipses, but it does not disappear completely. This suggests that the size of the variable optical emission source is comparable to that of the normal star whose size is therefore R_O \approx 2e12 cm \approx 30 R_sun. The decrease in flux variability amplitude during eclipses suggests the presence of a nonvariable optical emission component with a magnitude m_R=~13.2., 12 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy Letters. The original version in Russian is available at http://hea.iki.rssi.ru/rtt150/ru/ss433_pazh10/pss433_fast.pdf

We present the results of our optical identification of the X-ray source IGR J16547-1916 detected by the INTEGRAL observatory during a deep all-sky survey. Analysis of the spectroscopic data from the SWIFT and INTEGRAL observatories in the X-ray energy band and from the BTA (Special Astrophysical Observatory) telescope in the optical band has shown that the source is most likely an intermediate polar -- an accreting white dwarf with the mass of M~0.85 M_Sun in a low-mass binary system. Subsequent studies of the object's rapid variability with the RTT-150 telescope have confirmed this conclusion by revealing periodic pulsations of its optical emission with a period of ~550 s., 10 pages, 4 figures, will be published in Astronomy Letters, V.36, N12, PP.904-909, 2010

We study simultaneous X-ray and optical observations of three intermediate polars EX Hya, V1223 Sgr and TV Col with the aim to understand the propagation of matter in their accretion flows. We show that in all cases the power spectra of flux variability of binary systems in X-rays and in optical band are similar to each other and the majority of X-ray and optical fluxes are correlated with time lag

We have investigated the stellar population of the Chandra Bulge Field (CBF) 35′ × 35′ in area using the Russian-Turkish RTT-150 telescope with the goal of constructing an interstellar extinction map and determining the extinction law. The optical extinction has been determined from the positions of red clump giants (a group of red giants with the same luminosity and color) on the color-magnitude diagram in different parts of the field. This has allowed an interstellar extinction map of the field under consideration to be constructed with a resolution of 1′ × 1′. Based on the results of our analysis, we have also shown that the extinction law in the investigated field differs significantly from the standard one, most likely because the dust properties in the Galactic bulge differ from those in the Galactic disk. The derived extinction law confirms the measurements in the outer parts of the Galactic bulge.

Two faint X-ray pulsars, AX J1749.2−2725 and AX J1749.1−2733, located in the direction of the Galactic Centre, were studied in detail using data from the INTEGRAL, XMM–Newton and Chandra observatories in X-rays, the SOFI/NTT instrument in the infrared and the RTT150 telescope in the optical. X-ray positions of both sources were determined with an uncertainty better than ∼1 arcsec, which allowed us to identify their infrared counterparts. From the subsequent analysis of infrared and optical data, we conclude that the counterparts of both pulsars are likely to be massive stars of B0–B3 class located behind the Galactic Centre at distances of 12–20 kpc, depending on the type, probably in the further parts of the Galactic spiral arms. In addition, we investigated the extinction law towards the Galactic bulge and found that it is significantly different from the standard one.

We have measured the interstellar extinction in the region of ultradeep Galactic-field observations by the Chandra telescope (l II, b II) ≈ 0.1–1.42 using photometric data from the 2MASS infrared allsky survey. The angular resolution of our interstellar extinction map is 1′.8. We show that the interstellar extinction has a minimum, A V ∼ 3.4, near the center of the Chandra field of view and increases to A V ∼ 5.8–6 at the edge of the field of view. In addition, we show that the bulk of the extinction is gained in the Galactic disk and is approximately the same for all bulge stars. Our results will be subsequently used to process the Chandra data and to estimate the properties of the stellar population in this region.