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E. Kim, D.-W. Kim, G. Fabbiano (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), M. G. Lee, H. S. Park (Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea), D. Geisler, B. Dirsch (Universidad de Concepcion, Concepcion, Chile)
High spatial resolution Chandra X-ray observations of giant elliptical galaxies have shown that ~100 point sources, mostly LMXBs, are well distributed over the entire galaxy. To systematically investigate their connection to globular clusters, where the high space density provides an ideal site to capture a companion via N-body interaction, we have carried out a cross-correlation study with a large sample of galaxies.
Using the Chandra and HST archival data with supplemented ground-based observations for 7 elliptical galaxies, we detect ~760 discrete X-ray sources (82% of them are within the D25 ellipse). As previously reported, a large number of X-ray sources (~40% in our X-ray sample) are matched with optically selected globular clusters, which are identified in the optical C-M diagram. We find that the red globular clusters, presumably younger and/or metal-richer, have a higher probability (by a factor of ~5) than the blue clusters to host LMXB. Analyzing both optical and X-ray properties and spatial distributions of cluster and field LMXBs, we discuss their implications on the formation and evolution of LMXBs in conjunction with globular clusters.
This work was supported in part by NASA contract NAS8-39073 and NASA grant NAG5-9965.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.