Massive Stellar X‐ray Sources in the Galactic Center
Abstract
We present results of a spectroscopic survey of bright near-infrared counterparts to X-ray point sources from a deep Chandra survey of the Galactic nuclear bulge. K-band spectroscopy has revealed 13 new Wolf-Rayet and O-supergiant counterparts to Chandra soucres. Although they are systematically softer in X-rays than the general Galactic center source population of accretion powered CVs, their X-ray colors indicate a hard component consistent with emission from thermal plasma with kT>2 keV. Such hard X-ray emission is not ubiquitous among single Wolf-Rayet and O stars but is common among Wolf-Rayet+OB binaries with colliding supersonic winds. Although we regard colliding-wind binary hypothesis as the most likely scenario, it remains possible that several of these objects are wind-accreting neutron stars or black holes in supergiant high-mass X-ray binaries, or extraordinary single stars emitting hard X-rays.
Additional Information
© 2008 American Institute of Physics. Issue Date: 23 May 2008.Attached Files
Published - MAUaipcp08.pdf
Files
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:cfc2f0b1262a624f6865ae5011e7d06f
|
475.2 kB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 14294
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20090526-083058706
- Created
-
2009-08-28Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2022-11-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Series Name
- AIP Conference Proceedings
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 1010