X-ray binaries in Sculptor

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arXiv:astro-ph/0511101v1 3 Nov 2005PopulationsofHighEnergySourcesinGalaxiesProceedingsIAUSymposiumNo.230,2005E.Meurs&G.Fabbiano,eds.c󰀁2005InternationalAstronomicalUnionDOI:00.0000/X000000000000000X

ThediscoveryofX-raybinariesintheSculptorDwarfSpheroidalGalaxy

ThomasJ.Maccarone1,ArunavKundu2,StephenE.Zepf2,AnthonyL.Piro3andLarsBildsten3,4

1SchoolofPhysicsandAstronomy,UniversityofSouthampton,Southampton,SO171BJ,UK

email:tjm@phys.soton.ac.uk2DepartmentofPhysiscsandAstronomy,MichiganStateUniversity,EastLansing,MI,USA

3DepartmentofPhysics,UniversityofCaliforniaatSantaBarbara,SantaBarbara,CA,USA

4KavliInstituteforTheoreticalPhysics,UniversityofCaliforniaatSantaBarbara,Santa

Barbara,CA,USA

Abstract.WereporttheresultsofadeepChandrasurveyoftheSculptordwarfspheroidalgalaxy.WefindfiveX-raysourceswithLXofatleast6×1033ergs/secwithopticalcounter-partsestablishingthemasmembersofSculptor.TheseX-rayluminositiesindicatethatthesesourcesareX-raybinaries,asnootherknownclassofGalacticpointsourcescanreach0.5-8keVluminositiesthishigh.Findingthesesystemsprovesdefinitivelythatsuchobjectscanexistinanoldstellarpopulationwithoutstellarcollisions.Threeoftheseobjectshavehighlyevolvedopticalcounterparts(giantsorhorizontalbranchstars),asdothreeothersourceswhoseX-rayluminositiesareintherangewhichincludesbothquiescentlowmassX-raybinariesandthebrightestmagneticcataclysmicvariables.WepredictthatlargeareasurveysoftheMilkyWayshouldalsoturnuplargenumbersofquiescentX-raybinaries.

Keywords.X-rays:binaries–X-rays:galaxies–stars:binaries:close–galaxies:individual:Sculptordwarfspheroidal–stellardynamics–stars:PopulationII2shortauthorlistonlyafewGyrsafterthesupernovawhichcreatesthecompactobject(White&Ghosh1998).SeveralpossibilitiesstillexistforproducingX-raybinariesinoldpopulationssuchasellipticalgalaxies–theseLMXBsweseeinoldstellarpopulationsmaybeverylowdutycycletransients(meaningthattheywilltakealongtimetoaccretetheirentiremassdonors)whichbeginaccretiononlyaftertheirdonorstarsevolveoffthemainsequence(Piro&Bildsten2002),theymaybeultracompactX-raybinaries(Bildsten&Deloye2004),ortheymaybenormalX-raybinarieswhichwereproducedthroughdynamicalencountersinglobularclusters,andthenreleasedintothefield(e.g.White,Sarazin&Kulkarni2002;seealsoGrindlay1988).Ifthebulkoftheellipticalgalaxyfieldsourcesarelowdutycycletransients,thentheremustexistanunderlyingpopulationofquiescentX-raybinarieswhichismuchlargerthanthefractionwhichisflaringatanygiventime.Therefore,wehaveidentifiedalargesampleofoldstarswhichisnearby,anddoesnotcontainanyglobularclusters,theSculptordwarfspheroidalgalaxy.ByfindingfiveX-raybinariesinthisgalaxy,fourofwhichhavehighlyevolveddonorstars,wehaveverifiedthatthemechanismofPiro&Bildsten(2002)is,attheveryleast,asubstantialcontributortotheX-raybinarypopulationsseeninoldfieldstarpopulations.

2.DataWehaveobtained21exposuresof6-kilosecondseachwiththeChandraX-rayobserva-toryoverthetimeperiodfrom26April2004to10January2005.Themonitoring,ratherthanasingledeepobservation,wasperformedinordertosearchforbrighttransientsources,butnonewerefound.WethenstackedthedatatomakeasingleimageofthedataonACIS-S3,andranWAVDETECT,finding74sourcesinthe0.5-8.0keVband.Basedonpreviousdeepfieldmeasurements(e.g.Hornschemeieretal.2001),weestimatethatabout50ofthesesourcesshouldbebackgroundAGNandthatitisunlikelythatmorethanoneisaforegroundstar.InordertodeterminewhethertherearesupersoftX-raysources,wehavealsoextractedanimagefrom0.1-0.4keV,butthisimagecontainednobrightsources(i.e.withmorethan10photons)thatwerenotfoundinthe0.5-8.0keVimage.Wehavecomparedthepositionsofthe9sourceswithatleast100detectedcounts(givingaccuratepositions,andmakingthembrightenoughtoruleoutthepossibilityofawhitedwarfaccretor)withthepositionsofbrightopticalstars(V<20.5)intheSculptorgalaxyfromSchweitzeretal.(1995).ThestarsintheSchweitzeretal.(1995)catalogareallredgiants,asymptoticgiantbranchstars,orhorizontalbranchstars.WehavealsocheckedwhetherthesinglebrightestsourcehasanopticalcounterpartinthedeepopticalphotometryofHurley-Keller,Mateo&Grebel(1999).Allowingforan0.6”boresightcorrectionwefindfourmatcheswithin0.4”ofanopticalstarinSchewitzeretal.(1995).Thechancesuperpositionprobabilityis0.04fortheseobjects,andallhavepropermotionconfirmationsthattheyaremembersofSculptor,ratherthanforegroundorbackgroundsources.ThefifthmatchisthebrightestX-raysourceinoursample,whichisfoundatRA=1h00m13.9s,Dec=-33d44m42.5s.Whilethereisnostrongevidenceforittobevariableinourmonitoringcampaign,itwasnotdetectedintheROSATbrightsourceall-skysurvey,soitmusteitherbevariableatthelevelofafactorofafew,oritmusthaveaveryhardspectrumatsoftX-rays.ItsopticalcounterpartisR=23.68,B−R=0.95(D.Hurley-Kellerprivatecommunication-seeHurley-Kelleretal.1999foradescriptionofhowthephotometrywasdone),givingitaluminosityandcolorroughlyconsistentwithasolar-typestarinthelowmetallicity