The SCUBA-2 Large eXtragalactic Survey: 850 μm map, catalogue and the bright-end number counts of the XMM-LSS field

• We present 850 μm imaging of the XMM-LSS field observed for 170 h as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope SCUBA-2 Large eXtragalactic Survey (S2LXS). S2LXS XMM-LSS maps an area of 9 deg2, reaching a moderate depth of 1σ 4 mJy beam−1. This is the largest contiguous area of extragalactic sky mapped by James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) at 850 μm to date. The wide area of the S2LXS XMM-LSS survey allows us to probe the ultra-bright (S850μm 15 mJy), yet rare submillimetre population. We present the S2LXS XMM-LSS catalogue, which comprises 40 sources detected at >5σ significance, with deboosted flux densities in the range of 7–48 mJy. We robustly measure the bright-end of the 850 μm number counts at flux densities >7 mJy, reducing the Poisson errors compared to existing measurements. The S2LXS XMM-LSS observed number counts show the characteristic upturn at bright fluxes, expected to be motivated by local sources of submillimetre emission and high-redshift strongly lensed galaxies. We find that the observed 850 μm number counts are best reproduced by model predictions that include either strong lensing or source blending from a 15-arcsec beam, indicating that both may make an important contribution to the observed overabundance of bright single dish 850 μm selected sources. We make the S2LXS XMM-LSS 850 μm map and >5σ catalogue presented here publicly available.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

catalogues

galaxies: high-redshift

surveys

submillimetre: galaxies

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)