INTREFCAT - INTEGRAL Reference Catalog

Overview

The original version of the INTEGRAL Reference Catalog as published in 2003 classified previously known bright X-ray and gamma-ray sources before the launch of INTEGRAL. These sources are, or have been at least once, brighter than ~1 milliCrab above 3 keV energy, and are expected to be detected by INTEGRAL. This catalog was used in the INTEGRAL Quick Look Analysis (QLA) to discover new sources or significantly variable sources. The authors compiled several published X-ray and gamma-ray catalogs, and surveyed recent publications for new sources. Consequently, there were 1121 sources in the original INTEGRAL Reference Catalog. In addition to the source positions, an approximate spectral model and expected flux were given for each source, and the expected INTEGRAL counting rates based on these parameters was derived. Assuming the default instrument performances and at least ~10⁵ seconds exposure time for any part of the sky, it is expected that INTEGRAL will detect at least ~700 sources below 10 keV and ~400 sources above 20 keV over the mission life.

After the launch of INTEGRAL, a version of this catalog was placed on the ISDC website at http://www.isdc.unige.ch/integral/science/catalogue and has been updated periodically since then by adding, for example, new sources discovered by INTEGRAL itself (indicated by the IGR prefix in the name). This HEASARC table is based on the web version at the ISDC, and will be updated within a few days of whenever the latter is updated.

Catalog Bibcode

2003A&A...411L..59E

Bulletin

The INTREFCAT database table was last updated on 15 October 2023. It currently has 2410 entries.

References

This table is taken from the online web page maintained by the INTEGRAL Science Data Center at the URL http://www.isdc.unige.ch/integral/catalog/latest/catalog.html

Additional information pertaining to an earlier version of this catalog:

High-energy sources before INTEGRAL. INTEGRAL reference catalog.
    Ebisawa K., Bourban G., Bodaghee A., Mowlavi N., Courvoisier T.J.-L.
      <Astron. Astrophys. 411, L59 (2003)>
      =2003A&A...411L..59E      (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)

Provenance

This database table is updated automatically in the HEASARC database system within one week of any changes to the online web page maintained by the INTEGRAL Science Data Center at the URL http://www.isdc.unige.ch/integral/catalog/latest/catalog.html

Version Comments

Please refer to the INTEGRAL Science Data Center's detailed comments about the changes made to the catalog in the latest version at https://www.isdc.unige.ch/integral/catalog/latest/ISDC_Catlog_Production.html and the "detailed comments" about changes to older versions at https://www.isdc.unige.ch/integral/science/catalogue

HEASARC Implementation

The HEASARC has made some minor changes to this table compared to the original version obtained from the ISDC. We have added two new parameters, ra_precision and dec_precision (q.v.).

Parameters

Source_Number
The INTEGRAL Reference Catalog source number, in order of increasing J2000 RA.

Source_ID
This parameter is the unique identifier for the source, and, will remain the same even if the source position is modified at a later date.

Name
The INTEGRAL Reference Catalog source name. Often there are two or more names commonly used for the same source. The authors have taken the name which they consider to be the most popular in high-energy astrophysics and which is also used as a SIMBAD source identifier. Thus, users can directly put the source name into the SIMBAD query box.

RA
The Right Ascension of the high-energy source. In most cases, positions are taken from SIMBAD. From time to time, however, the authors found and adopted a more recent position determination than SIMBAD. The accuracy depends on the individual sources, which was reflected in the representation of the source positions in the original CDS table where the J2000 RAs were given with a precision that varied from 0.001 seconds of time to 1 minute of time. To help users, the HEASARC has added a parameter called ra_precision which has the following values:

       ra_precision    meaning

         60.           position given with 1 minute of time precision
          6.           position given with 0.1 minutes of time precision
          1.           position given with 1 second of time precision
          0.1          position given with 0.1 seconds of time precision
          0.01         position given with 0.01 seconds of time precision
          0.001        position given with 0.001 seconds of time precision

Dec
The Declination of the high-energy source. In most cases, positions are taken from SIMBAD. From time to time, however, the authors found and adopted a more recent position determination than SIMBAD. The accuracy depends on the individual sources, which was reflected in the representation of the source positions in the original CDS table where the J2000 Declinations were given with a precision that varied from 0.01 arcseconds to 1 degree. To help users, the HEASARC has added a parameter called dec_precision which has the following values:

       dec_precision    meaning

       3600.           position given with 1 degree of precision
        360.           position given with 0.1 degrees of precision
         60.           position given with 1 arcminute of precision
          6.           position given with 0.1 arcminutes of precision
          1.           position given with 1 arcsecond of precision
          0.1          position given with 0.1 arcseconds of precision
          0.01         position given with 0.01 arcseconds of precision

RA_Precision
This parameter encodes the original precision of the RA in the CDS table on which this HEASARC Browse table is based, as follows:

       ra_precision    meaning

         60.           position given with 1 minute of time precision
          6.           position given with 0.1 minutes of time precision
          1.           position given with 1 second of time precision
          0.1          position given with 0.1 seconds of time precision
          0.01         position given with 0.01 seconds of time precision
          0.001        position given with 0.001 seconds of time precision

Dec_Precision
This parameter encodes the original precision of the Dec in the CDS table on which this HEASARC Browse table is based, as follows:

       dec_precision    meaning

       3600.           position given with 1 degree of precision
        360.           position given with 0.1 degrees of precision
         60.           position given with 1 arcminute of precision
          6.           position given with 0.1 arcminutes of precision
          1.           position given with 1 arcsecond of precision
          0.1          position given with 0.1 arcseconds of precision
          0.01         position given with 0.01 arcseconds of precision

LII
The Galactic Longitude of the high-energy source.

BII
The Galactic Latitude of the high-energy source.

Error_Radius
The positional uncertainty of the high-energy source, in arcseconds.

Pos_Ref
The author(s) of the position reference specified by the pos_ref_bibcode parameter and possibly other information. In cases of multiple references, this parameter will contain all of the relevant information.

Pos_Ref_Bibcode
The ADS Bibcode for the source position reference. This is for readers who need to know the position accuracy and/or position determination method. Often SIMBAD gives the source position reference as well as the position itself, in which case the authors have supplied both. Otherwise, they searched for the proper references themselves.

ISGRI_Flag
This parameter has the value of 0 if the source has not been detected by ISGRI. It has the value of 1 if the source has been detected by ISGRI. It has a value of 2 if source has been detected and a position is available with a precision of less than 3 arcseconds.

ISGRI2_Flag
This parameter has the value of 0 if the source has not been detected by ISGRI. It has the value of 1 if the source was detected in a single science window. It has a value of 2 if the source was detected in a mosaic. It has a value of 5 if the source was a very bright source (used for screening of background and images).

JEMX_Flag
This parameter has the value of 1 if the source has been detected by JEMX; otherwise, it is set to 0.

SPI_Flag
This parameter has the value of 1 if the source has been detected by SPI; otherwise, it is set to 0.

PICSIT_Flag
This parameter has the value of 1 if the source has been detected by PICSIT; otherwise, it is set to 0.

Source_Type
A characterization of the source type, such as low-mass X-ray binary, high-mass X-ray binary, Seyfert-1 galaxy, etc.

Alt_Names
Various alternate names for the high-energy source. Since there are many varieties of sources, the authors did not have a consistent rule to decide which aliases to choose. However, they did try to put at least one alias directly related to high-energy satellites and/or catalogs. For example, "4U" for the 4th Uhuru catalog (Forman et al. 1978, ApJS, 182, 489), and "2EG" for the 2nd EGRET source catalog (Thompson et al. 1995, ApJS, 101, 259).

Class
The HEASARC Browse object classification, based on the value of the source_type parameter.

Contact Person

Questions regarding the INTREFCAT database table can be addressed to the HEASARC Help Desk.

Page Author: Browse Software Development Team
Last Modified: Monday, 16-Sep-2024 17:29:18 EDT