The XMM-Newton wide-field survey in the COSMOS field. I. Survey description

We present the first set of XMM-Newton EPIC observations in the 2 deg ² COSMOS field. The strength of the COSMOS project is the unprecedented combination of a large solid angle and sensitivity over the whole multiwavelength spectrum. The XMM-Newton observations are very efficient in localizing and identifying active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and clusters, as well as groups of galaxies. One of the primary goals of the XMM-Newton Cosmos survey is to study the coevolution of active galactic nuclei as a function of their environment in the cosmic web. Here we present the log of observations, images, and a summary of first research highlights for the first pass of 25 XMM-Newton pointings across the field. In the existing data set we have detected 1416 new X-ray sources in the 0.5-2, 2-4.5, and 4.5-10 keV bands to an equivalent 0.5-2 keV flux limit of 7 × 10 ^-16 erg cm ^-2 s ^-1. The number of sources is expected to grow to almost 2000 in the final coverage of the survey. From an X-ray color-color analysis we identify a population of heavily obscured, partially leaky or reflecting absorbers, most of which are likely to be nearby, Compton-thick AGNs.