A Deep Extragalactic Survey with the ART-XC Telescope of the Spectrum-RG Observatory: Simulations and Expected Results

To choose the best strategy for conducting a deep extragalactic survey with the ART-XC X-ray telescope onboard the Spectrum-Rontgen-Gamma (SRG) observatory and to estimate the expected results, we have simulated the observations of a 1.1A degrees x 1.1A degrees field in the 5-11 and 8-24 keV energy bands. For this purpose, we have constructed a model of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) population that reflects the properties of the X-ray emission from such objects. The photons that "arrived" from these sources were passed through a numerical model of the telescope, while the resulting data were processed with the standard ART-XC data processing pipeline. We show that several hundred AGNs at redshifts up to z ae 3 will be detected in such a survey over 1.2 Ms of observations with the expected charged particle background levels. Among them there will be heavily obscured AGNs, which will allow a more accurate estimate of the fraction of such objects in the total population to be made. Source confusion is expected at fluxes below 2 x 10(-14) erg s(-1) cm(-2) (5-11 keV). Since this value can exceed the source detection threshold in a deep survey at low particle background levels, it may turn out to be more interesting to conduct a survey of larger area (several square degrees) but smaller depth, obtaining a sample of approximately four hundred bright AGNs as a result.