X-RAY AND OPTICAL STUDY OF LOW CORE DENSITY GLOBULAR CLUSTERS NGC6144 AND E3
Author(s)
Lan, Shih-Hao; Kong, Albert K. H.; Verbunt, Frank; Lewin, Walter H. G.; Bassa, Cees; Anderson, Scott F.; Pooley, David; ... Show more Show less
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We report on the Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of two low core-density globular clusters, NGC6144 and E3. By comparing the number of X-ray sources inside the half-mass radius to those outside, we found six X-ray sources within the half-mass radius of NGC6144, of which four are expected to be background sources; three X-ray sources are also found within the half-mass radius of E3, of which three are expected to be background sources. Therefore, we cannot exclude the possibility that all our sources are background sources. However, combining the results from X-ray and optical observations, we found that one to two sources in NGC6144 and one source in E3 are likely to be cataclysmic variables and that one source in NGC6144 is an active binary, based on the X-ray and optical properties. The number of faint X-ray sources in NGC6144 and E3 found with Chandra and HST is higher than a prediction based on collision frequency, but is closer to that based on mass. Our observations strongly suggest that the compact binary systems in NGC6144 and E3 are primordial in origin.
Date issued
2010-03Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics; MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space ResearchJournal
Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Citation
Lan, Shih-Hao, Albert K. H. Kong, Frank Verbunt, Walter H. G. Lewin, Cees Bassa, Scott F. Anderson, and David Pooley. “X-RAY AND OPTICAL STUDY OF LOW CORE DENSITY GLOBULAR CLUSTERS NGC6144 AND E3.” The Astrophysical Journal 712, no. 1 (March 2, 2010): 380–391. © 2010 The American Astronomical Society
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0004-637X
1538-4357