THE CHANDRA LOCAL VOLUME SURVEY. I. the X-RAY POINT SOURCE POPULATIONS of NGC 55, NGC 2403, and NGC 4214

Abstract

We present comprehensive X-ray point source catalogs of NGC 55, NGC 2403, and NGC 4214 as part of the Chandra Local Volume Survey. The combined archival observations have effective exposure times of 56.5 ks, 190 ks, and 79 ks for NGC 55, NGC 2403, and NGC 4214, respectively. When combined with our published catalogs for NGC 300 and NGC 404, our survey contains 629 X-ray sources total down to a limiting unabsorbed luminosity of erg s-1 in the 0.35-8 keV band in each of the five galaxies. We present X-ray hardness ratios, spectral analysis, radial source distributions, and an analysis of the temporal variability for the X-ray sources detected at high significance. To constrain the nature of each X-ray source, we carried out cross-correlations with multi-wavelength data sets. We searched overlapping Hubble Space Telescope observations for optical counterparts to our X-ray detections to provide preliminary classifications for each X-ray source as a likely X-ray binary, background active galactic nucleus, supernova remnant, or foreground star.