Context :

Aims : We analysed eight XMM-Newton observations toward the Small Magellanic Cloud ( SMC ) , performed between October 2006 and June 2007 , to investigate high mass X-ray binary systems .

Methods : We produced images from the European Photon Imaging Cameras ( EPIC ) and extracted X-ray spectra and light curves in different energy bands from sources which yielded a sufficiently high number of counts for a detailed temporal and spectral analysis .
To search for periodicity we applied Fourier transformations and folding techniques and determined pulse periods using a Bayesian approach .
To identify optical counterparts we produced X-ray source lists for each observation using maximum likelihood source detection techniques and correlated them with optical catalogues .
The correlations were also used for astrometric boresight corrections of the X-ray source positions .

Results : We found new X-ray binary pulsars with periods of 202 s ( XMMU J005929.0-723703 ) , 342 s ( XMMU J005403.8-722632 ) , 645 s ( XMMU J005535.2-722906 ) and 325 s ( XMMU J005252.1-721715 ) , in the latter case confirming the independent discovery in Chandra data .
In addition we detected sixteen known Be/X-ray binary pulsars and six ROSAT-classified candidate high mass X-ray binaries .
From one of the candidates , RX J0058.2-7231 , we discovered X-ray pulsations with a period of 291 s which makes it the likely counterpart of XTE J0051-727 .
From the known pulsars , we revise the pulse period of CXOU J010206.6-714115 to 967 s , and we detected the 18.37 s pulsar XTE J0055-727 ( = XMM J004911.4-724939 ) in outburst , which allowed us to localise the source .
The pulse profiles of the X-ray pulsars show a large variety of shapes from smooth to highly structured patterns and differing energy dependence .
For all the candidate high mass X-ray binaries optical counterparts can be identified with magnitudes and colours consistent with Be stars .
Twenty of the Be/X-ray binaries were detected with X-ray luminosities in the range 1.5 \times 10 ^ { 35 } erg s ^ { -1 } - 5.5 \times 10 ^ { 36 } erg s ^ { -1 } .
The majority of the spectra is well represented by an absorbed power-law with an average power-law index of 0.93 .
The absorption ( in addition to the Galactic foreground value ) varies over a wide range between a few 10 ^ { 20 } cm ^ { -2 } and several 10 ^ { 22 } cm ^ { -2 } .
An overall correlation of the absorption with the total SMC H I column density suggests that the absorption seen in the X-ray spectra is often largely caused by interstellar gas .

Conclusions :