Discovery of five new Galactic symbiotic stars in the VPHAS+ survey

We report the validation of a recently proposed infrared (IR) selection criterion for symbiotic stars (SySts). Spectroscopic data were obtained for seven candidates, selected from the SySt candidates of Akras et al. by employing the new supplementary IR selection criterion for SySts in the VST/OmegaCAM Photometric H-Alpha Survey. Five of them turned out to be genuine SySts after the detection of H α, He II, and [O III] emission lines as well as TiO molecular bands. The characteristic O VI Raman-scattered line is also detected in one of these SySts. According to their IR colours and optical spectra, all five newly discovered SySts are classified as S-type. The high rate of true SySts detections of this work demonstrates that the combination of the H α emission and the new IR criterion improves the selection of target lists for follow-up observations by minimizing the number of contaminants and optimizing the observing time.