The Swift/BAT high-latitude survey:: First results

We present preliminary results from the first 3 months of the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) high Galactic latitude survey in the 14-195 keV band. The survey reaches a flux of similar to 10(-11) ergs cm(-2) s(-1) and has similar to 2.'7 (90% confidence) positional uncertainties for the faintest sources. This represents the most sensitive survey to date in this energy band. These data confirm the conjectures that a high-energy-selected active galactic nucleus (AGN) sample would have very different properties from those selected in other bands and that it represents a true sample of the AGN population. We have identified 86% of the 66 high-latitude sources. Twelve are Galactic-type sources, and 44 can be identified with previously known AGNs. All but five of the AGNs have archival X-ray spectra, enabling us to estimate the line-of-sight column densities and other spectral properties. Both of the z > 0.11 objects are blazars. The median redshift of the others (excluding radio-loud objects) is 0.012. We find that the column density distribution of these AGNs is bimodal, with 64% of the nonblazar sources having column densities N-H >= 10(22) cm(-2). None of the sources with log L-x > 43.5 (cgs units) show high column densities, and very few of the lower L-x sources have low column densities. Based on these data, we expect the final BAT catalog to have >200 AGNs and reach fluxes of less than similar to 10(-11) ergs cm(-2) s(-1) over the entire sky.