First Infrared Observations of Faint Chandra Sources near the Galactic Centre
Abstract
We present results from the first near-IR imaging of the weak X-ray sources discovered in the Wang et al. (2002) Chandra/ACIS-I survey towards the Galactic Centre (GC). These 800 discrete sources, which contribute significantly to the GC X-ray emission, represent an important and previously unknown population within the Galaxy. From our VLT observations we identify likely IR counterparts to a sample of the hardest sources, which are most likely X-ray binaries. With these data we can place constraints on the nature of the discrete weak X-ray source population of the GC. We discuss our results in the context of binary population synthesis models.
- Publication:
-
AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division #8
- Pub Date:
- August 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004HEAD....8.1707B