The Magellanic Bridge: evidence for a population of X-ray binaries
Abstract
INTEGRAL observations of the Small Magellanic Cloud region have resulted in the serendipitous detection of two transient hard X-ray sources in the Magellanic Bridge. In this paper, we present the timing and spectral characteristics of these sources across the 2-100keV energy range, which, in conjunction with their optical counterparts, demonstrate that they are high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) in the Magellanic Bridge. Together with one previously known HMXB system, and three candidates, these sources represent an emerging population of X-ray binaries in the Bridge, probably initiated by tidally induced star formation as a result of the gravitational interaction between the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- April 2010
- DOI:
- 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.16178.x
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0912.2951
- Bibcode:
- 2010MNRAS.403..709M
- Keywords:
-
- binaries: general;
- Magellanic Clouds;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 6 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS