Swift observations of unidentified radio sources in the revised Third Cambridge Catalogue

Abstract

We have investigated a group of unassociated radio sources included in the Third Cambridge Catalogue (3CR) to increase the multifrequency information on them and possibly obtain an identification. We have carried out an observational campaign with the Swift satellite to observe with the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) and the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) the field of view of 21 bright NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) sources within the positional uncertainty region of the 3CR sources. Furthermore, we have searched in the recent AllWISE Source Catalogue for infrared sources matching the position of these NVSS sources. We have detected significant emission in the soft X-ray band for nine of the investigated NVSS sources. To all of them, and in four cases with no soft X-ray association, we have associated a Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer infrared counterpart. Eight of these infrared candidates have not been proposed earlier in the literature. In the five remaining cases our candidate matches one among a few optical candidates suggested for the same 3CR source in previous studies. No source has been detected in the UVOT filters at the position of the NVSS objects, confirming the scenario that all of them are heavily obscured. With this in mind, a spectroscopic campaign, preferably in the infrared band, will be necessary to establish the nature of the sources that we have finally identified.