Identifying four INTEGRAL sources in the Galactic plane via VLT/optical and XMM-Newton/X-ray spectroscopy

We report on FORS2 (FOcal Reducer/low dispersion Spectrograph 2) spectroscopy aiming at the identification of four Galactic plane sources discovered by INTEGRAL, IGR J18088-2741, IGR J18381-0924, IGR J17164-3803, and IGR J19173+0747, complemented by XMM-Newton spectroscopy for IGR J18381-0924. The presence of broad H I and He I emission lines and a flat Balmer decrement Hα/Hβ show that IGR J18088-2741 is a cataclysmic variable located beyond 8 kpc. For IGR J18381-0924, the detection of redshifted Hα and O I emission signatures and the absence of narrow forbidden emission lines point towards a low-luminosity Seyfert 1.9 nature at z = 0.031 ± 0.002. Its XMM-Newton spectrum, best fitted by an absorbed Γ = 1.19 ± 0.07 power law combined with a z=0.026_{-0.008}^{+0.016} redshifted iron emission feature, is in agreement with this classification. The likely IGR J17164-3803 optical counterpart is an M2 III star at 3-4 kpc which, based on the X-ray spectrum of the source, is the companion of a white dwarf in an X-ray faint symbiotic system. Finally, we challenge the accepted identification of IGR J19173+0747 as a high-mass X-ray binary. Indeed, the USNO optical counterpart is actually a blend of two objects located at the most likely 3 kpc distance, both lying within the error circle of the Swift position. The first is a cataclysmic variable, which we argue is the real nature of IGR J19173+0747. However, we cannot rule out the second one which we identify as an F3 V star which, if associated with IGR J19173+0747, likely belongs to a quiescent X-ray binary.