XMM-Newton observations of five INTEGRAL sources located towards the Scutum Arm

Results are presented for XMM-Newton observations of five hard X-ray sources discovered by INTEGRAL in the direction of the Scutum Arm. Each source received 20 ks of effective exposure time. We provide refined X-ray positions for all five targets enabling us to pinpoint the most likely counterpart in optical/infrared archives. Spectral and timing information (much of which is provided for the first time) allow us to give a firm classification for IGR J18462–0223 and to offer tentative classifications for the others. For IGR J18462–0223, we discovered a coherent pulsation period of 997 ± 1 s, which we attribute to the spin of a neutron star in a highly obscured (N H =2 × 1023 cm–2) high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB). This makes IGR J18462–0223 the seventh supergiant fast X-ray transient candidate with a confirmed pulsation period. IGR J18457+0244 is a highly absorbed (N H =8 × 1023 cm–2) source in which the possible detection of an iron line suggests an active galactic nucleus (AGN) of type Sey-2 situated at z = 0.07(1). A periodic signal at 4.4 ks could be a quasi-periodic oscillation which would make IGR J18457+0244 one of a handful of AGNs in which such features have been claimed, but a slowly rotating neutron star in an HMXB cannot be ruled out. IGR J18482+0049 represents a new obscured HMXB candidate with N H =4 × 1023 cm–2. We tentatively propose that IGR J18532+0416 is either an AGN or a pulsar in an HMXB system. The X-ray spectral properties of IGR J18538–0102 are consistent with the AGN classification that has been proposed for this source.