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[17.07] First Infrared Observations of Faint Chandra Sources near the Galactic Centre

R. M. Bandyopadhyay, K. M. Blundell, J. C. A. Miller-Jones, Ph. Podsiadlowski (Dept. of Astrophysics, Oxford University), F. E. Bauer (Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University), Q. D. Wang (Dept. of Astronomy, U. Massachusetts Amherst), S. Rappaport (MIT Center for Space Research), E. Pfahl (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), W. N. Brandt (Dept. of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University)

We present results from the first near-IR imaging of the weak X-ray sources discovered in the Wang et al. (2002) Chandra/ACIS-I survey towards the Galactic Centre (GC). These ~ 800 discrete sources, which contribute significantly to the GC X-ray emission, represent an important and previously unknown population within the Galaxy. From our VLT observations we identify likely IR counterparts to a sample of the hardest sources, which are most likely X-ray binaries. With these data we can place constraints on the nature of the discrete weak X-ray source population of the GC. We discuss our results in the context of binary population synthesis models.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.