Dwarf Novae in the Galactic Bulge Survey - Observational Constraints on X-ray/Recurrence Time Relations and Space Density

The Galactic Bulge Survey is a shallow, wide-field X-ray survey of the Galactic Bulge made with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, covering 12 square degrees above and below the Galactic Plane, centered at |b|=1.5°. In 8 days of optical observations, made with the Mosaic-II instrument on the Blanco 4m telescope at CTIO with the purpose of identifying variable optical counterparts to the 1216 unique X-ray sources in the GBS, 8 dwarf novae (DN) outbursts were identified. 4 of the X-ray detected systems undergoing DN outbursts are within the 100 brightest X-ray sources. It is thought that X-ray flux in DN systems traces mass accretion, which is correlated with recurrence rate. With these observations, we can place observational constraints on the relationship between X-ray flux and recurrence rates. In addition, there are DN outbursts in our data set for which no X-ray detection was made. We can use our observations to independently estimate the space density of systems undergoing DN outbursts in the Milky Way.