First deep XMM-Newton observations of the LMC: Identifying LMC intrinsic source populations

The first X-ray survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) was performed with the Einstein satellite, revealing diffuse X-ray emission from hot gas and discrete X-ray sources. The ROSAT observations between 1990 and 1998 supplied the most sensitive survey with imaging instruments in the soft X-ray band (0.1 - 2.4 keV). The PSPC and HRI observations covered 59 square degrees of the LMC and yielded a catalogue of about 1000 sources. Large efforts were undertaken to identify and classify the X-ray sources according to the nature of their X-ray emission. X-ray properties were used together with information from other electro-magnetic wavelength bands to screen out foreground stars and background objects from the LMC intrinsic X-ray source population which comprises X-ray binaries, supernova remnants and supersoft sources. However, the vast majority of sources still remains of unknown nature. First deep XMM-Newton observations of selected regions in the LMC demonstrate a large step forward in the identification of LMC X-ray sources. The large collecting area together with imaging detectors covering energies 0.1 - 15 keV with far improved spectral resolution allows to determine the nature of an object directly from the X-ray properties down to low flux levels of a few 10$^{-14}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. First results of a deep observation north of LMC X-4 are presented, which reveal the presence of new supernova remnants and X-ray binaries.