A Swift X-ray view of the SMS4 sample - III: Deeper insight into previously undetected sources

arXiv:2609.04310 · astro-ph.HE · Submitted 2026-09-03 · Read on arXiv

astro-ph.HE

Submitted: 2026-09-03

Updated: 2026-09-03

Comments: 14 pages, 3 figures, 8 tables; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The gist: We update the X-ray information given in Maselli et al.

Terminology

Abstract

We update the X-ray information given in Maselli et al. (2024) for five bright radio sources in the SMS4 catalog, thanks to additional observations with the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) on board the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (hereafter Swift) carried out through February 2026. X-ray emission from MRC B1754-597, previously based only on data from the eROSITA-DE DR1 catalogs, is now detected also by Swift, which yields a more precise positional uncertainty. Thanks to 7 ks of additional exposure with Swift we are now able to detect MRC B1817-391, a source for which no X-ray counterpart is found in eROSITA-DE DR1. Another source that is not detected in the eROSITA-DE DR1 catalogs, and that was not observed by Swift earlier than 2025, is MRC B1827-360: with a 6 ks X-ray observation, the source is detected. Finally, based on 8 ks of additional exposure, we detect X-ray emission for MRC B2032-350, a source that lies out of the DR1 footprint. In contrast, additional exposure (2 ks) just gives an upper limit on the X-ray emission of MRC B1814-519. The analysis of the extent and the hardness ratio of the four detected X-ray sources suggests the presence of soft, diffuse X-ray emission as expected from galaxy group cores or hot galaxy coronae. Using the positional uncertainty of the X-ray detections to constrain the search for counterparts at lower energies, we provide a new infrared/optical counterpart for MRC B1817-391 and confirm the counterparts previously reported in the literature for the three remaining sources.

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