Chandra Observation of Quiescent Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries in the Globular Cluster NGC 6304

This paper presents the analysis of candidate low-mass X-ray binaries in quiescence (qLMXBs) observed during a short Chandra/ACIS observation of the globular cluster (GC) NGC 6304. Two out of the three candidate qLMXBs of this cluster, XMMU 171433-292747 and XMMU 171421-292917, lie within the field of view. This permits comparison with the discovery observation of these sources. The one in the GC core—XMMU 171433-292747—is spatially resolved into two separate X-ray sources, one of which is consistent with a pure H-atmosphere qLMXB, and the other is an X-ray power-law spectrum source. These two spectral components separately account for those observed from XMMU 171433-292747 in its discovery observation. We find that the observed flux and spectral parameters of the H-atmosphere spectral components are consistent with the previous observation, as expected from a qLMXB powered by deep crustal heating. XMMU 171421-292917 also has neutron star atmosphere spectral parameters consistent with those in the XMM-Newton observation and the observed flux has decreased by a factor 0.54^+0.30 _-0.24.