Unveiling the nature of IGR J16493-4348 with IR spectroscopy

Abstract

The International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) is discovering a large number of new hard X-ray sources, many of them being HMXBs. The identification and spectral characterization of their optical/infrared counterparts is a necessary step in undertaking a detailed study of these systems. In a previous paper, we presented spectral analyses and classifications of six newly discovered INTEGRAL sources. In this paper, we extend the analysis to IGR J16493-4348. We used the ESO/VLT ISAAC spectrograph to observe the proposed IR counterpart to the source, obtaining a Ks medium-resolution spectrum (R = 500) with a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) >150. We classified the source by comparing with published atlases. We spectrally classified the source as a B0.5-1 supergiant and estimated its interstellar extinction. We compared the extinction derived from X-ray data with effective interstellar extinction obtained from our data, discussing the absorption component associated with the circumstellar environment.

4 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

References in corpus (5)

• The 3rd IBIS/ISGRI soft gamma-ray survey catalog
• The 4th IBIS/ISGRI soft gamma-ray survey catalog
• Multi-wavelength observations of Galactic hard X-ray sources discovered by INTEGRAL. I. The nature of the companion star
• Unveiling the nature of six HMXBs through IR spectroscopy
• Probing the nature of IGR J16493-4348: Spectral and temporal analysis of the 1-100 keV emission

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Towards a unified view of inhomogeneous stellar winds in isolated supergiant stars and supergiant high mass X-ray binaries
• Population of persistent high mass X-ray binaries in the Milky Way
• Advances in Understanding High-Mass X-ray Binaries with INTEGRAL and Future Directions
• Superorbital Periodic Modulation in Wind-Accretion High-Mass X-ray Binaries from Swift BAT Observations
• Seven Years with the Swift Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients Project
• On the possibility of disk-fed formation in supergiant high-mass X-ray binaries
• Evidence for a resonant cyclotron line in IGR J16493-4348 from the Swift-BAT hard X-ray survey
• A Study of the 20 Day Superorbital Modulation in the High-Mass X-ray Binary IGR J16493-4348
• The Orbital Parameters of the Eclipsing High-Mass X-ray Binary Pulsar IGR J16493-4348 from Pulsar Timing