Detection of type-1 bursts from the Galactic Center using Astrosat-LAXPC

We report the detection of two Type-1 X-ray bursts within a span of a few hours from acrowded region near the Galactic Center (GC) using Astrosat-LAXPC. The detected burstsexhibit a characteristic FRED profile, suggestive of a thermonuclear flash process observedin neutron stars. This region near the GC hosts several potential sources in the LAXPC field of view. The object closest to the LAXPC pointing, 1E 1743.1-2843, is a persistent LMXB, for which, the nature of the compact object is unknown so far. Two other potential candidates, GRS 1741.9-2853 and SAX J1747.0-2853, are known to be transient low luminosity bursters. Three sources, KS J1741-293, 2E 1742.9-2929 and IGR J17473-272 lie close to the edge of the LAXPC field of view of this observation and for the bursts to be from one of these sources, have to be extremely luminous. We inspect all these sources as possible candidates using pointing information of all three LAXPCs, their relative efficiencies and the observed burst fluences. We also check the pre and post burst luminosity states of these objects. The LMXB object 1E 1743.1-2843 is a strong candidate for being the source of the two bursts. This wouldestablish the presence of a neutron star primary for this binary,resolving the ambiguity associated with the nature of this system. We also examine the energy resolved burst characteristics and burst recurrence times. Results from search for high frequency QPOs will also be presented along with preliminary results obtained from burst spectroscopy.