The UK Deep and Medium Surveys with Rosat: log N-Log S relation

We have carried out a soft X-ray survey of the sky using the ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) in a region of very low Galactic column density (N_H = 6–9 × 10¹⁹ cm^–2). The data consist of a deep > 70 ks pointing (the Deep Survey) and six pointings at lower sensitivity (13–20 ks; the Medium Survey). We detect a total of 141 sources over the 0.9 deg² of sky area used. The faintest source detected has a flux of 3.2 × 10^–15 erg cm^–2 s^–1 (0.5–2.0 keV). We present the source number-flux distribution, and we compare it with the distributions constructed from other ROSAT observations and from surveys carried out with X-ray instruments operating at higher energies. We estimate the contribution of the resolved sources to the soft X-ray background by direct comparison of their integrated spectrum with that of the diffuse background: 44 per cent of the extragalactic X-ray background between 0.5 and 2.0 keV is resolved directly into discrete sources whose average spectrum is steeper than that of the background. Integration of our number-flux relation to infinite flux produces a background resolved fraction of $$44 \pm _{5}^{56}$$ per cent (0.5–2.0 keV). Limits on the slope of the log N–log S curve at very faint fluxes are set by the measured value of the X-ray background.