Chandra localization and optical/near-infrared follow-up of Galactic X-ray sources

Abstract

We investigate a sample of 11 Galactic X-ray sources recently discovered with INTEGRAL or RXTE with the goal of identifying their optical and/or near-infrared (NIR) counterpart. For this purpose, new Chandra positions of nine objects are presented together with follow-up observations of all the targets in the optical and NIR. For the four sources IGR J16194-2810, IGR J16479-4514, IGR J16500-3307 and IGR J19308+0530, the Chandra position confirms an existing association with an optical/NIR object, while for two sources, XTE J1716-389 and IGR J18490-0000, it rules out previously proposed counterparts indicating new ones. In the case of IGR J17597-220, a counterpart is selected out of the several possibilities proposed in the literature, and we present the first association with an optical/NIR source for IGR J16293-4603 and XTE J1743-363. Moreover, optical/NIR observations are reported for XTE J1710-281 and IGR J17254-3257 we investigate the counterpart to the X-ray sources based on their XMM-Newton positions. We discuss the nature of each system considering its optical/NIR and X-ray properties.