Chandra Multiwavelength Plane (ChaMPlane) Survey: an Introduction

Abstract

We introduce the Chandra Multiwavelength Plane (ChaMPlane) Survey, designed to measure or constrain the populations of low-luminosity (Lx > ~10^31 erg/s) accreting white dwarfs, neutron stars and stellar mass black holes in the Galactic Plane and Bulge. ChaMPlane incorporates two surveys, X-ray (Chandra) and optical (NOAO 4m-Mosaic imaging), and a followup spectroscopy and IR identification program. The survey has now extended through the first 6 years of Chandra data using serendipitous sources detected in 105 distinct ACIS-I and -S fields observed in 154 pointings and covered by 65 deep Mosaic images in V, R, I, and H-alpha. ChaMPlane incorporates fields with galactic latitude |b| <~ 12 deg and selected to be devoid of bright point or diffuse sources, with exposure time > ~20 ksec, and (where possible) minimum NH. We describe the scientific goals and introduce the X-ray and optical/IR processing and databases. We derive preliminary constraints on the space density or luminosity function of cataclysmic variables from the X-ray/optical data for 14 fields in the Galactic Anticenter. The lack of ChaMPlane CVs in these Anticenter fields suggests their space density is ~ 3x below the value (3 x 10^-5 pc^-3) found for the solar neighborhood by previous X-ray surveys. Companion papers describe the X-ray and optical processing in detail, optical spectroscopy of ChaMPlane sources in selected Anticenter fields and IR imaging results for the Galactic Center field. An Appendix introduces the ChaMPlane Virtual Observatory (VO) for online access to the X-ray and optical images and source catalogs for ready display and further analysis.

10 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, accepted in ApJ for publication

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Cited by in corpus (44)

• Chandra Acis Survey of X-Ray Point Sources in 383 Nearby Galaxies I. the Source Catalog
• X-ray Processing of ChaMPlane Fields: Methods and Initial Results for Selected Anti-Galactic Center Fields
• A Chandra Catalog of X-ray Sources in the Central 150 pc of the Galaxy
• A Full Year's Chandra Exposure on SDSS Quasars from the Chandra Multiwavelength Project
• The Galactic Bulge Survey: outline and X-ray observations
• Radial Distribution of X-ray Point Sources near the Galactic Center
• Dominance of Magnetic Cataclysmic Variables in the Resolved Galactic Ridge X-ray Emission of the Limiting Window
• Newly Discovered Cataclysmic Variables from the INT/WFC Photometric H alpha Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane
• Hα Emission Variability in Active M Dwarfs
• A Catalog of Transient X-ray Sources in M31
• The X-ray source content of the XMM-Newton Galactic Plane Survey
• Discovery of a Significant Magnetic CV Population in the Limiting Window
• The XMM-Newton SSC survey of the Galactic Plane
• A Chandra X-ray study of the interacting binaries in the old open cluster NGC6791
• ChaMPlane Deep Galactic Bulge Survey. I. Faint accretion-driven binaries in the Limiting Window
• Identification of a Population of X-ray Emitting Massive Stars in the Galactic Plane
• An Unexpected Discovery in the Rich Open Cluster NGC 6819 Using XMM-Newton
• ChaMPlane Discovery of Candidate Symbiotic Binaries in Baade's and Stanek's Windows
• The X-ray Emissivity of Low-Density Stellar Populations
• The ChaMPlane bright X-ray sources - Galactic longitudes l = 2-358 deg
• Interstellar extinction and the distribution of stellar populations in the direction of the ultra-deep Chandra Galactic field
• A New Cluster of Galaxies towards the Galactic Bulge, Suzaku J1759-3450
• Chasing the Identification of ASCA Galactic Objects (ChIcAGO) - An X-ray Survey of Unidentified Sources in the Galactic Plane I: Source Sample and Initial Results
• Near-infrared counterparts to the Galactic Bulge Survey X-ray source population
• Variability of Optical Counterparts in the Chandra Galactic Bulge Survey
• Modeling the Galactic CV Distribution for the ChaMPlane Survey
• Spectroscopic Follow-up of X-ray Sources in the ChaMPlane Survey: Identification of a New Cataclysmic Variable
• A feasibility study on the photometric detection of quiescent black hole X-ray binaries
• The Galactic Plane at faint X-ray fluxes - I: Properties and characteristics of the X-ray source population
• Chandra Discovery of an Intermediate Polar in Baade's Window
• Investigating ChaMPlane X-ray sources in the Galactic Bulge with Magellan LDSS2 spectra
• Deep Chandra Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud. II. Timing Analysis of X-ray Pulsars
• Near-Infrared and X-ray Observations of the Enigmatic G70.7+1.2
• Near-infrared counterparts of Chandra X-ray sources toward the Galactic Center
• Relation between the X-ray and Optical Luminosities in Binary Systems with Accreting Nonmagnetic White Dwarfs
• Deep optical imaging of the gamma-ray pulsar J1048-5832 with the VLT
• SXP214, an X-ray Pulsar in the Small Magellanic Cloud, Crossing the Circumstellar Disk of the Companion
• Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of Faint Discrete X-ray Point Sources Constituting the Galactic Ridge X-ray Emission
• A Curious Source of Extended X-ray Emission in the Outskirts of Globular Cluster GLIMPSE-C01
• Broad Observational Perspectives Achieved by the Accreting White Dwarf Sciences in the XMM-Newton and Chandra Eras
• Luminosity function of binary X-ray sources calculated using the Scenario Machine
• Statistical Analysis of Point-like Sources in Chandra Galactic Center Survey
• From Blackbirds to Black Holes: Investigating Capture-Recapture Methods for Time Domain Astronomy
• Optical Time-Series Photometry of the Symbiotic Nova V1835 Aquilae