Infrared identification of hard X-ray sources in the Galaxy

The nature of the low- to intermediate-luminosity (L_X ∼ 10^32-34 erg s^-1) source population revealed in hard band (2-10 keV) X-ray surveys of the Galactic plane is poorly understood. To overcome such problem, we cross-correlated the XMM-Newton 3XMM-DR4 survey with the infrared Two Micron All Sky Survey and Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire catalogues. We identified reliable X-ray-infrared associations for 690 sources. We selected 173 sources having hard X-ray spectra, typical of hard X-ray high-mass stars (kT > 5 keV), and 517 sources having soft X-ray spectra, typical of active coronae. About 18 per cent of the soft sources are classified in the literature: ∼91 per cent as stars, with a minor fraction of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars. Roughly 15 per cent of the hard sources are classified in the literature: ∼68 per cent as high-mass X-ray stars single or in binary systems (WR, Be and high-mass X-ray binaries - HMXBs), with a small fraction of G and B stars. We carried out infrared spectroscopic pilot observations at the William Herschel Telescope for five hard X-ray sources. Three of them are high-mass stars with spectral types WN7-8h, Ofpe/WN9 and Be, and L_X ∼ 10³²-10³³erg s^-1. One source is a colliding-wind binary, while another source is a colliding-wind binary or a supergiant fast X-ray transient in quiescence. The Be star is a likely γ-Cas system. The nature of the other two X-ray sources is uncertain. The distribution of hard X-ray sources in the parameter space made of X-ray hardness ratio, infrared colours and X-ray-to-infrared flux ratio suggests that many of the unidentified sources are new γ-Cas analogues, WRs and low L_X HMXBs. However, the nature of the X-ray population with K_s ≥ 11 and average X-ray-to-infrared flux ratio remains unconstrained.