Populations of Sources in a Galactic Plane Survey with the ART-XC Telescope of the Spectrum-RG Observatory: Simulations

Abstract

The possibility of conducting a Galactic plane survey at energies above 5 keV with the ART-XC telescope onboard the Spectrum-Röntgen-Gamma (SRG) observatory during the satellite’s flight to the Lagrange point L2 is considered. One of the possible fields for such a survey is proposed. We show that it will be possible to detect ∼100 cataclysmic variables with luminosities 10³¹−10³⁴ erg s⁻¹ in a survey with an area of 10 deg² and a duration of 10 days. Such a representative sample may allow the luminosity function and other properties of the population of cataclysmic variables in the Galaxy to be refined.