Exploring the Nature of Weak Chandra Sources Near the Galactic Centre

R. M. Bandyopadhyay, K. M. Blundell, Ph. Podsiadlowski, J. C. A. Miller-Jones, Q. D. Wang, W. N. Brandt, S. Rappaport, E. Pfahl
2004 International Astronomical Union Colloquium  
We present early results from the first near-IR imaging of the weak X-ray sources discovered in the recent Chandra/ACIS-I survey towards the Galactic Centre (GC) (Wang et al. 2002). These ~800 discrete sources, which contribute significantly to the GC X-ray emission, represent an important and previously unknown population within the Galaxy. From our VLT observations we will identify likely IR counterparts to a sample of the hardest sources, which are most likely X-ray binaries. With these data
more » ... we can place constraints on the nature of the discrete weak X-ray source population of the GC. Once the data analysis is complete we will discuss our results in the context of binary population synthesis models.
doi:10.1017/s0252921100153060 fatcat:vo76ioscq5hd7g7wntarmmztji