Discovery and identification of infrared counterpart candidates of four Galactic centre low mass X-ray binaries

Abstract

The near infrared (nIR)/optical counterparts of low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) are often observationally dim and reside in high source density fields which make their identification problematic; however, without such a counterpart identification we are unable to investigate many of the properties of LMXB systems. Here, in the context of a larger identification campaign, we examine the fields of four LMXB systems near the Galactic centre, in a bid to identify nIR/optical counterparts to the previously detected X-ray point sources. We obtain nIR/optical images of the fields with the ESO - New Technology Telescope and apply standard photometric and astrometric calibrations; these data are supplemented by Spitzer-GLIMPSE catalog data. On the basis of positional coincidence with the arcsecond accurate X-ray positions, we identify unambiguous counterpart candidates for XTE J1637-498, IGR J17379-3747, IGR J17585-3057 and GX 9+1. We propose tentative nIR counterparts of four LMXBs which require further investigation to confirm their associations to the X-ray sources.

Accepted to A&A (5 pages, 4 figures)

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• WATCHDOG: A Comprehensive All-Sky Database of Galactic Black Hole X-ray Binaries
• INTEGRAL/IBIS nine-year Galactic Hard X-Ray Survey
• INTEGRAL/IBIS 17-yr hard X-ray all-sky survey
• UltraCompCAT: a comprehensive Catalogue of Ultra-Compact and Short Orbital Period X-ray Binaries
• The Galactic LMXB Population and the Galactic Centre Region
• Discovery of the near-infrared counterpart to the luminous neutron-star low-mass X-ray binary GX 3+1
• On the curious pulsation properties of the accreting millisecond pulsar IGR J17379-3747
• On the origin of the near-infrared emission from the neutron-star low-mass X-ray binary GX 9+1