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Study of the Faint End of the X-ray Source Populations in the Small Magellanic Cloud

Citation:

Antoniou V, Zezas A, Hatzidimitriou D. Study of the Faint End of the X-ray Source Populations in the Small Magellanic Cloud. In: Vol. 1010. ; 2008. pp. 320 - 324.

Date Presented:

2008/05/1

Abstract:

Using Chandra, XMM-Newton and optical data (published photometric catalogs and our 2dF spectroscopic survey) we study the X-ray binary (XRB) populations of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We find that the number of Be/X-ray binaries (Be-XRBs) peaks at the age of maximum Be-star formation ~30-70 Myr ago. We also examine the ``overabundance'' of Be-XRBs in the SMC fields covered by Chandra, in comparison with the Milky Way. Even after taking into account the difference in the formation rate of OB stars, we estimate that Be-XRBs are ~2 times more common in the SMC when compared to the Milky Way and for luminosities down to ~1034 erg s-1. We explain this large number of SMC Be-XRBs as the result of both its low metallicity environment (~1/5 solar) and its high star-formation (SF) rate at the age of maximum formation of Be stars.

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