Abstract
We present the Bright SHARC (Serendipitous High-Redshift Archival ROSAT Cluster) Survey, which is an objective search for serendipitously detected extended X-ray sources in 460 deep ROSAT PSPC pointings. The Bright SHARC Survey covers an area of 178.6 deg2 and has yielded 374 extended sources. We discuss the X-ray data reduction, the candidate selection and present results from our on-going optical follow-up campaign. The optical follow-up concentrates on the brightest 94 of the 374 extended sources and is now 97% complete. We have identified 37 clusters of galaxies, for which we present redshifts and luminosities. The clusters span a redshift range of 0.0696 < z < 0.83 and a luminosity range of 0.065 < LX < 8.3 × 1044 ergs s-1 [0.5-2.0 keV] (assuming H0 = 50 km s-1 Mpc-1 and q0 = 0.5). Twelve of the clusters have redshifts greater than z = 0.3, eight of which are at luminosities brighter than LX = 3 × 1044 ergs s-1. Seventeen of the 37 optically confirmed Bright SHARC clusters have not been listed in any previously published catalog. We also report the discovery of three candidate "fossil groups" of the kind proposed by Ponman et al.
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Based on data taken at the European Southern Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Canada-France-Hawaii, and Apache Point Observatory.