Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T20:52:32.185Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hα imaging for BeXRBs in the Small Magellanic Cloud

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2017

G. Maravelias Open the ORCID record for G. Maravelias [Opens in a new window] ,
A. Zezas ,
V. Antoniou ,
D. Hatzidimitriou  and
F. Haberl
G. Maravelias
Affiliation:
Astronomický ústav AVČR, v.v.i., Ondřejov, Czechia, email: [email protected]
A. Zezas
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, USA Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, Greece
V. Antoniou
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, USA
D. Hatzidimitriou
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Athens, Greece
F. Haberl
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) hosts a large number of high-mass X-ray binaries, and in particular of Be/X-ray Binaries (BeXRBs; neutron stars orbiting OBe-type stars), offering a unique laboratory to address the effect of metalicity. One key property of their optical companion is Hα in emission, which makes them bright sources when observed through a narrow-band Hα filter. We performed a survey of the SMC Bar and Wing regions using wide-field cameras (WFI@MPG/ESO and MOSAIC@CTIO/Blanco) in order to identify the counterparts of the sources detected in our XMM-Newton survey of the same area. We obtained broad-band R and narrow-band Hα photometry, and identified ~10000 Hα emission sources down to a sensitivity limit of 18.7 mag (equivalent to ~B8 type Main Sequence stars). We find the fraction of OBe/OB stars to be 13% down to this limit, and by investigating this fraction as a function of the brightness of the stars we deduce that Hα excess peaks at the O9-B2 spectral range. Using the most up-to-date numbers of SMC BeXRBs we find their fraction over their parent population to be ~0.002 − 0.025 BeXRBs/OBe, a direct measurement of their formation rate.

Keywords

Magellanic Cloudsstars: early-typestars: emission-lineBeX-rays: binaries
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 12 , Symposium S329: The Lives and Death-Throes of Massive Stars , November 2016 , pp. 373 - 375
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2017 

References

Antoniou, V., Zezas, A., Hatzidimitriou, D., & McDowell, J. C., 2009, ApJ, 697, 1695 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belczynski, K., Kalogera, V., Rasio, F. A., et al. 2008, ApJS, 174, 223 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haberl, F. & Sturm, R., 2016, A&A, 586, 81H Google Scholar
Iqbal, S. & Keller, S. C., 2013, MNRAS, 435, 3103 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maeder, A. & Meynet, G., 2000, ARA&A, 38, 143M Google Scholar
Maravelias, G. 2014, PhD Thesis, University of Crete, Heraklion, GreeceGoogle Scholar
Martayan, C., Baade, D., & Fabregat, J., 2010, A&A, 509, A11 Google Scholar
Meyssonnier, N. & Azzopardi, M., 1993, A&AS, 102, 451 Google Scholar
Zaritsky, D., Harris, J., Thompson, I. B., Grebel, E. K., & Massey, P., 2002, AJ, 123, 855 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhao, P., Grindlay, J. E., Hong, J. S., Laycock, S., et al. 2005, ApJS, 161, 429 CrossRefGoogle Scholar