The Fifth Data Release Sloan Digital Sky Survey/XMM-Newton Quasar Survey

Abstract

We present a catalog of 792 Fifth Data Release Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasars with optical spectra that have been observed serendipitously in the X-rays with the XMM-Newton. These quasars cover a redshift range of z = 0.11-5.41 and a magnitude range of i = 15.3-20.7. Substantial numbers of radio-loud (70) and broad absorption line (51) quasars exist within this sample. Significant X-ray detections at >=2σ account for 87% of the sample (685 quasars), and 473 quasars are detected at >=6σ, sufficient to allow X-ray spectral fits. For detected sources, ~60% have X-ray fluxes between F _{2-10 keV} = (1-10) ×10^-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1. We fit a single power law, a fixed power law with intrinsic absorption left free to vary, and an absorbed power-law model to all quasars with X-ray signal-to-noise ratio >= 6, resulting in a weighted mean photon index Γ = 1.91 ± 0.08, with an intrinsic dispersion σ_Γ = 0.38. For the 55 sources (11.6%) that prefer intrinsic absorption, we find a weighted mean N_H = 1.5 ± 0.3 × 10²¹ cm^-2. We find that Γ correlates significantly with optical color, Δ(g - i), the optical-to-X-ray spectral index (α_ox), and the X-ray luminosity. While the first two correlations can be explained as artifacts of undetected intrinsic absorption, the correlation between Γ and X-ray luminosity appears to be a real physical correlation, indicating a pivot in the X-ray slope.