The Swift Bulge Survey. first X-ray results Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Bahramian A.
  2. Heinke C.O.
  3. Kennea J.A.
  4. Maccarone T.J.
  5. Evans P.A.,Wijnands R.
  6. Degenaar N.
  7. in't Zand J.J.M.
  8. Shaw A.W.,Rivera Sandoval L.E.
  9. McClure S.
  10. Tetarenko A.J.
  11. Strader J.
  12. Kuulkers E.,Sivakoff G.R.
  13. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

Very faint X-ray transients (VFXTs) are X-ray transients with peak X-ray luminosities (L_X_) of L_X_~<10^36^erg/s, which are not well understood. We carried out a survey of 16 deg^2^ of the Galactic Bulge with the Swift Observatory, using short (60s) exposures, and returning every 2 weeks for 19 epochs in 2017-18 (with a gap from 2017 November to 2018 February, when the Bulge was in sun-constraint). Our main goal was to detect and study VFXT behaviour in the Galactic Bulge across various classes of X-ray sources. In this work, we explain the observing strategy of the survey, compare our results with the expected number of source detections per class, and discuss the constraints from our survey on the Galactic VFXT population. We detected 91 X-ray sources, 25 of which have clearly varied by a factor of at least 10. In total, 45 of these X-ray sources have known counterparts: 17 chromospherically active stars, 12 X-ray binaries, 5 cataclysmic variables (and 4 candidates), 3 symbiotic systems, 2 radio pulsars, 1 active galactic nuclei, and a young star cluster. The other 46 are of previously undetermined nature. We utilize X-ray hardness ratios, searches for optical/infrared counterparts in published catalogues, and flux ratios from quiescence to outburst to constrain the nature of the unknown sources. Of these 46, 7 are newly discovered hard transients, which are likely VFXT X-ray binaries. Furthermore, we find strong new evidence for a symbiotic nature of four sources in our full sample, and new evidence for accretion power in six X-ray sources with optical counterparts. Our findings indicate that a large subset of VXFTs is likely made up of symbiotic systems.

Keywords
  1. X-ray sources
  2. Accretion
  3. Active galactic nuclei
  4. X-ray binary stars
  5. Milky Way Galaxy
  6. Optical astronomy
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2021MNRAS.501.2790B
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/501/2790
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/501/2790

Access

Web browser access HTML
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/501/2790
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/501/2790
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/501/2790
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http://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tap
Run SQL-like queries with TAP-enabled clients (e.g., TOPCAT).
IVOA Cone Search SCS
For use with a cone search client (e.g., TOPCAT).
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/501/2790/catalog?
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/501/2790/catalog?
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/501/2790/catalog?

History

2023-11-15T08:22:24Z
Resource record created
2023-11-15T07:25:56Z
Updated
2023-11-15T08:22:24Z
Created

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr