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Issue A&A
Volume 440, Number 2, September III 2005
Page(s) 637 - 646
Section Stellar structure and evolution
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20052684



A&A 440, 637-646 (2005)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20052684

Identification of the optical counterparts of high-mass X-ray binaries through optical photometry and spectroscopy

P. Reig1, 2, I. Negueruela3, G. Papamastorakis1, 2, A. Manousakis2 and T. Kougentakis1

1  IESL, Foundation for Research and Technology, 711 10 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
    e-mail: pau@physics.uoc.gr
2  University of Crete, Physics Department, PO Box 2208, 710 03 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
3  Departamento de Física, Ingeniería de Sistemas y Teoría de la Señal, Universidad de Alicante, 03080 Alicante, Spain

(Received 12 January 2005 / Accepted 8 May 2005 )

Abstract
We present the results of our search for optical counterparts to high-mass X-ray transient sources discovered by various X-ray missions. We obtained CCD images of the X-ray fields through BVR and H$\alpha$ filters to identify early-type stars in the $R-{\rm H}\alpha$ versus B-V colour-colour diagram. We also obtained medium-resolution spectroscopy of the candidates in order to confirm the presence of H$\alpha$ emission and perform spectral classification. We report on the discovery of the optical counterparts to two X-ray sources: XTE J1858+034 and  IGR J01363+6610 , and the follow-up observations of another two, newly identified by our group: SAX J2103.5+4545 and GRO J2058+42 . For another source, IGR J00370+6122 , we present the first detailed optical spectral analysis. The optical photometry and spectroscopy reveal B-type companions in all five sources; GRO J2058+42 , SAX J2103.5+4545 and IGR J01363+6610 are positively identified with Be/X-ray binaries, IGR J00370+6122 with a supergiant X-ray binary, while the nature of the XTE J1858+034 is uncertain. We also study the relationship between the optical and X-ray emission during quiescent states.


Key words: X-rays: binaries -- stars: neutron -- stars: binaries: close -- stars: emission-line, Be -- stars: pulsars: general -- X-rays: general

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© ESO 2005


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