Insight into the early Universe using very metal-poor massive X-ray binaries
Abstract
We propose 260ks Chandra observations of Sextans A, one of the lowest metallicity (~0.1Zsun) galaxies with active star formation (SF) in the Local Universe (1.32 Mpc). Sextans A hosts star-forming regions with ages ~4-400 Myr and has a specific SFR~1.6x10^{-10}/yr promising a rich X-ray binary (XRB) population. The recently published catalog of 150 OB stars and the spatially resolved SF history will allow us to (a) measure the age and metallicity distribution of ~300 High-Mass XRBs (including ~1 ULX) down to LX~10^{35} erg/s and their formation efficiency as a function of the age of their parent stellar populations; and (b) constrain XRB formation models, all for the first time in an extremely metal poor galaxy with a mean chemical composition representative of the primordial Universe.
- Publication:
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Chandra Proposal
- Pub Date:
- September 2023
- Bibcode:
- 2023cxo..prop.6542A
- Keywords:
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- Chandra Proposal ID #25620223