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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
earth and planetary sciences
Highly absorbed X-ray binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 532, Article A153, Year 2011
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Description
Many of the high mass X-ray binaries (HMXRBs) discovered in recent years in our Galaxy are characterized by a high absorption, most likely intrinsic to the system, that can impede their detection at the softest X-ray energies. Exploiting the good coverage obtained with sensitive XMM-Newton observations, we have undertaken a search for highly absorbed X-ray sources in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), which is known to contain a large number of HMXRBs. After a systematic analysis of 62 XMM-Newton SMC observations, we obtained a sample of 30 sources with evidence of an equivalent hydrogen column density larger than 3 × 1023 cm-2. Five of these sources are clearly identified as HMXRBs, four being previously known (including three X-ray pulsars) and one, XMMU J005605.8-720012, being reported here for the first time. For the latter, we present optical spectroscopy confirming the association with a Be star in the SMC. The other sources in our sample have optical counterparts fainter than magnitude ∼16 in the V band, and many have possible NIR counterparts consistent with highly reddened early-type stars in the SMC. While their number is broadly consistent with the expected population of background highly absorbed active galactic nuclei, a few of them could be HMXRBs in which an early-type companion is severely reddened by local material. © 2011 ESO.
Authors & Co-Authors
Novara, Giovanni
Italy, Milan
Inaf Istituto Di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, Milan
La Palombara, N.
Italy, Milan
Inaf Istituto Di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, Milan
Mereghetti, Sandro
Italy, Milan
Inaf Istituto Di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, Milan
Haberl, Frank W.
Germany, Garching Bei Munchen
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
Coe, Malcolm J.
United Kingdom, Southampton
University of Southampton
Filipovíc, Miroslav D.
Australia, Penrith
Western Sydney University
Udalski, Andrzej
Poland, Warsaw
University of Warsaw
Paizis, A.
Italy, Milan
Inaf Istituto Di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, Milan
Pietsch, Wolfgang N.
Germany, Garching Bei Munchen
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
Sturm, Richard
Germany, Garching Bei Munchen
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
Gil’fanov, Marat R.
Germany, Garching Bei Munchen
Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics
Tiengo, Andrea
Italy, Milan
Inaf Istituto Di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, Milan
Payne, Jeffrey L.
Australia, Penrith
Western Sydney University
Smits, Derck P.
South Africa, Pretoria
University of South Africa
de Horta, Ain Y.
Australia, Penrith
Western Sydney University
Statistics
Citations: 15
Authors: 15
Affiliations: 7
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1051/0004-6361/201116997
ISSN:
00046361
e-ISSN:
14320746
Research Areas
Health System And Policy
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Systematic review