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J. E. Grindlay, P. Edmonds, M. R. Garcia, J. E. McClintock, S. S. Murray, P. Zhao (CfA), A. Cool (SFSU)
The Chandra Multiwavelength Plane (ChaMPlane) Survey is a project to identify a large sample of serendipitous X-ray sources located to arcsec precision in deep (\gtrsim 30 ksec) galactic fields (b \lesssim 10 degree) imaged by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Our primary goal is to identify Cataclysmic Variables (CVs) and quiescent Low Mass X-ray Binaries (qLMXBs), primarily black hole X-ray novae in quiescence, in order to constrain and ultimately measure the luminosity functions of each. Secondary objectives are to determine the Be X-ray binary (BeHMXB) content and stellar coronal source distributions in the Galaxy. CVs and qLMXBs are identified by their ubiquitous H\alpha excess as ``blue'' objects in the R vs. (H\alpha - R) plane down to R ~ 24 using the wide-field (37~arcmin) MOSAIC-II camera on the CTIO/KPNO 4m telescope. Photometry to <5% (R) and <10% (H\alpha) would then allow discovery of H\alpha emission lines with EW(H\alpha) > 10Å\ from objects with absolute magnitudes Mv ~ 8 at d ~ 10 kpc, allowing for Av ~ 1. This criterion should include most moderately-reddened qLMXBs and CVs in the Galaxy, from the optical search alone. However having the Chandra serendipitous survey sources in the central half (~16 arcmin) of the MOSAIC-II field, each located to ~1-2~arcsec, enables initial classification of objects as CVs vs. qLMXBs or BeHMXBs from their X-ray/optical flux (Fx/Fv) vs. EW(H\alpha) values. A pilot survey has been successfully conducted at the CTIO 4m in March, 2000 (see our paper ``Optical Imaging of Serendipitous Chandra Field Sources in the Galactic Plane'' in this meeting).