PEARLS: NuSTAR and XMM-Newton Extragalactic Survey of the JWST North Ecliptic Pole Time-Domain Field IV: X-Ray Variability Analysis
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: NuSTAR and XMM-Newton have observed the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) Time-Domain Field (TDF) for almost five contiguous years starting in 2019. In that time, the NEP X-ray survey has accumulated 3.5 Ms and 228 ks of quasi-simultaneous NuSTAR and XMM-Newton observations, respectively. This paper presents variability results for the 112 NuSTAR and 453 XMM-Newton sources detected in this field, based solely on the X-ray photometric data. Four NuSTAR sources and 11 XMM-Newton sources varied in at least one band at >=99% confidence. The sources with redshift measurements show a relationship between luminosity and variability with 74% of variable sources brighter than 5x the sensitivity limit of the survey. This is supported by about 1/3 of sources with more than 400 counts detected being variable and only 4 sources with fewer counts showing variability. Variability timescales are not well determined, but variability amplitude tends to be larger on longer timescales.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
DOI: 10.13016/m2sa8b-vwse
Authors: Silver, Ross, Civano, Francesca, Zhao, Xiurui, Creech, Samantha, Willner, S. P., Willmer, Christopher N. A., Windhorst, Rogier A., Yan, Haojing, Koekemoer, Anton M., O'Brien, Rosalia, Ortiz, Rafael, Jansen, Rolf A., Bowling, Gibson B., Saikia, Payaswini, Maksym, W. Peter, Cappelluti, Nico, Fornasini, Francesca, Ricotti, Massimo, Carleton, Timothy, Cohen, Seth H., Honor, Rachel, Summers, Jake, D'Silva, Jordan C. J., Laha, Sibasish, Coe, Dan, Conselice, Christopher J., Diego, Jose M., Driver, Simon P., Frye, Brenda, Grogin, Norman A., Marshall, Madeline A., Pirzkal, Nor, Robotham, Aaron, Ryan, Russell E.
Institutions: Goddard Space Flight Center, California Institute of Technology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Utah, Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian, University of Arizona, Arizona State University, University of Missouri, Space Telescope Science Institute, Yale University, Marshall Space Flight Center, University of Miami, Stonehill College, University of Maryland, College Park, The University of Western Australia, ASTRO-3D, ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, International Space Centre, University of Manchester, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto de Física de Cantabria, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7214035259