The Chandra Multi - wavelength Project ( ChaMP ) : a serendipitous survey with Chandra archival data

The Chandra Multi-wavelength Project (ChaMP): a serendipitous survey with Chandra archival data. Abstract. The launch of the Chandra X-ray Observatory in July 1999 opened a new era in X-ray astronomy. Its unprecedented, < 0.5 " spatial resolution and low background are providing views of the X-ray sky 10-100 times fainter than previously possible. We have initiated a serendipitous survey (ChaMP) using Chandra archival data to flux limits covering the range between those reached by current satellites and those of the small area Chandra deep surveys. We estimate the survey will cover ∼ 5 sq.deg. per year to X-ray fluxes (2−10 keV) in the range 10 −13 − 6 × 10 −16 erg cm −2 s −1 discovering ∼2000 new X-ray sources, ∼ 80% of which are expected to be active galactic nuclei (AGN). The ChaMP has two parts, the extragalactic survey (ChaMP) and the galactic plane survey (ChaM-Plane). Over five years of Chandra operations, the ChaMP will provide both a major resource for Chandra observers and a key research tool for the study of the cosmic X-ray background (CXRB) and the individual source populations which comprise it. ChaMP promises profoundly new science return on a number of key questions at the current frontier of many areas of astronomy including (1) locating and studying high red-shift clusters and so constraining cosmological parameters, (2) defining the true population of AGN, including those that are absorbed, and so constraining the accretion history of the universe, (3) filling in the gap in the luminosity/redshift plane between Chandra deep and previous surveys in studying the CXRB, (4) studying coronal emission from late-type stars as their cores become fully convective and (5) search for cataclysmic variables (CVs) and quiescent Low-Mass X-ray Binaries (qLXMBs) to measure their luminosity functions. In this paper we summarize the status, predictions and initial results from the X-ray analysis and optical imaging. 1 2 Wilkes et al.