Constraining the Nature of the Galactic Center X-ray Source Population
arXiv:astro-ph/0509783 · doi:10.1086/498821
Abstract
We searched for infrared counterparts to the cluster of X-ray point sources discovered by Chandra in the Galactic Center Region (GCR). While the sources could be white dwarfs, neutron stars, or black holes accreting from stellar companions, their X-ray properties are consistent with magnetic Cataclysmic Variables, or High Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXB) at low accretion-rates. A direct way to decide between these possibilities and hence between alternative formation scenarios is to measure or constrain the luminosity distribution of the companions. Using infrared (J, H, K, Br-gamma) imaging, we searched for counterparts corresponding to typical HMXB secondaries: spectral type B0V with K<15 at the GCR. We found no significant excess of bright stars in Chandra error circles, indicating that HMXBs are not the dominant X-ray source population, and account for fewer than 10% of the hardest X-ray sources.
4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, accepted in ApJ Letters for publication
References in corpus (3)
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