Spectroscopic follow-up of NIR candidate counterparts to Galactic Center X-ray sources

Details Spectroscopic follow-up of NIR candidate counterparts to Galactic Center X-ray sources Spectroscopic follow-up of NIR candidate counterparts to Galactic Center X-ray sources

Aug 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010noao.prop..484d&link_type=abstract

NOAO Proposal ID #2010B-0484

Mathematics

Probability

Scientific paper

The Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered 4339 X-ray point sources within the 17 arcmin^2 field centered on Sgr A^*. Nearly a dozen of the brighter near-IR (NIR) counterparts in this region have been spectroscopically identified as Wolf-Rayet/O supergiants, possibly in colliding wind binaries or high mass X-ray binaries. However, the nature of the X-ray sources whose candidate counterparts have IR magnitudes of K_s > 12 mag is almost completely unknown. We utilized our JHK ISPI imaging of this 17 arcmin^2 region to create a catalog of NIR/X-ray astrometric matches with 2205 X-ray/IR sources. Using Monte-Carlo simulations, we identified 88 IR sources that have a high probability of being true counterparts to Galactic Center (GC) X-ray sources. We propose to obtain JHK spectra of 28 potential IR counterparts with K_s=12-14 mag. Our analysis suggests that half of these objects will be true physical counterparts. Definitive identification of the X-ray source counterparts will help probe a previously unknown segment of the GC X-ray source population, and will have important implications for our understanding of XRBs in the Galaxy, including their formation, evolutionary history, and physical characteristics.

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