EVN and MERLIN observations of microquasar candidates at low galactic latitudes

¹ Departament d'Astronomia i Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
² Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany
³ Departamento de Física, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad de Jaén, Virgen de la Cabeza 2, 23071 Jaén, Spain

Corresponding author: M. Ribó, mribo@am.ub.es

Received: 2 August 2002
Accepted: 27 August 2002

Abstract

In an attempt to increase the number of known microquasars, Paredes et al. ([CITE]) have presented a long-term project focused on the search for new objects of this type. They performed a cross-identification between X-ray and radio catalogs under very restrictive selection criteria for sources with , and obtained a sample of 13 radio-emitting X-ray sources. Follow-up observations of 6 of these sources with the VLA provided accurate coordinates, which were used to discover optical counterparts for all of them. We have observed these six sources with the EVN and MERLIN at 5 GHz. Five of the six objects have been detected and imaged, presenting different morphologies: one source has a two-sided jet, three sources have one-sided jets, and one source is compact. With all the presently available information, we conclude that two of the sources are promising microquasar candidates in our Galaxy.