On the nature of the hard X-ray source IGR J2018+4043

We found a very likely counterpart to the recently discovered hard X-ray source IGR J2018 + 4043 in the multiwavelength observations of the source field. The source, originally discovered in the 20-40 keV band, is now confidently detected also in the 40-80 keV band, with a flux of (1.4 +/- 0.4) x 10(-11) ergs cm(-2) s(-1). A 5 ks Swift observation of the IGR J2018 + 4043 field revealed a hard pointlike source with an observed 0.5-10 keV flux of 3.4(-0.8)(+0.7) x 10(-12) ergs cm(-2) s(-1) (90% confidence level) at alpha = 20(h)18(m)38(s).55, delta = +40 degrees 41'00.4" (with a 4".2 uncertainty). The combined Swift-INTEGRAL spectrum can be described by an absorbed power-law model with photon index Gamma = 1.3 +/- 0.2 and N-H = 6.1(-2.2)(+3.3) x 10(22) cm(-2). In archival optical and infrared data we found a slightly extended and highly absorbed object at the Swift source position. There is also an extended VLA 1.4 GHz source peaked at a beamwidth distance from the optical and X-ray positions. The observed morphology and multiwavelength spectra of IGR J2018 + 4043 are consistent with those expected for an obscured accreting object, i.e., an AGN or a Galactic X-ray binary. The identification suggests possible connection of IGR J2018 + 4043 to the bright gamma-ray source GEV J2020 + 4023 detected by COS B and CGRO EGRET.