Multiwavelength Characterization of the High-mass X-Ray Binary Population of M33

Margaret Lazzarini; Kyros Hinton; Cheyanne Shariat; Benjamin F. Williams; Kristen Garofali; Julianne J. Dalcanton; Meredith Durbin; Vallia Antoniou; Breanna Binder; Michael Eracleous; Neven Vulic; Jun Yang; Daniel Wik; Aria Gasca; Quetzalcoatl Kuauhtzin

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acdbc8

The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2023)

Multiwavelength Characterization of the High-mass X-Ray Binary Population of M33

Margaret Lazzarini,
Kyros Hinton,
Cheyanne Shariat,
Benjamin F. Williams,
Kristen Garofali,
Julianne J. Dalcanton,
Meredith Durbin,
Vallia Antoniou,
Breanna Binder,
Michael Eracleous,
Neven Vulic,
Jun Yang,
Daniel Wik,
Aria Gasca,
Quetzalcoatl Kuauhtzin

Affiliations

Margaret Lazzarini: ORCiD; Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology , 1200 E California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA ; [email protected]
Kyros Hinton: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy, Box 351580, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Cheyanne Shariat: ORCiD; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles , Los Angeles, 430 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Benjamin F. Williams: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy, Box 351580, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Kristen Garofali: ORCiD; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , Code 662, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
Julianne J. Dalcanton: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy, Box 351580, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute , 162 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
Meredith Durbin: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy, Box 351580, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Vallia Antoniou: ORCiD; Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas Tech University , Lubbock, TX 79409, USA; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Breanna Binder: ORCiD; Department of Physics & Astronomy, California State Polytechnic University , 3801 W. Temple Avenue, Pomona, CA 91768, USA
Michael Eracleous: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics and Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University , 525 Davey Lab, University Par, PA 16802, USA
Neven Vulic: ORCiD; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , Code 662, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA; Eureka Scientific, Inc. , 2452 Delmer St., Suite 100, Oakland, CA 94602-3017, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742-2421, USA; Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology , NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
Jun Yang: ORCiD; Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Daniel Wik: ORCiD; University of Utah , Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
Aria Gasca: PUC Early College Academy for Leaders and Scholars , 2050 N San Fernando Road, Los Angeles, CA 90065, USA
Quetzalcoatl Kuauhtzin: PUC Early College Academy for Leaders and Scholars , 2050 N San Fernando Road, Los Angeles, CA 90065, USA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acdbc8
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 952, no. 2
p. 114

Abstract

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We present multiwavelength characterization of 65 high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) candidates in M33. We use the Chandra ACIS survey of M33 (ChASeM33) catalog to select hard X-ray point sources that are spatially coincident with UV-bright point-source optical counterparts in the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury: Triangulum Extended Region catalog, which covers the inner disk of M33 at near-IR, optical, and near-UV wavelengths. We perform spectral energy distribution fitting on multiband photometry for each point-source optical counterpart to measure its physical properties including mass, temperature, luminosity, and radius. We find that the majority of the HMXB companion star candidates are likely B-type main-sequence stars, suggesting that the HMXB population of M33 is dominated by Be X-ray binaries (Be-XRBs), as is seen in other Local Group galaxies. We use spatially resolved recent star formation history maps of M33 to measure the age distribution of the HMXB candidate sample and the HMXB production rate for M33. We find a bimodal distribution for the HMXB production rate over the last 80 Myr, with a peak at ∼10 and ∼40 Myr, which match theoretical formation timescales for the most massive HMXBs and Be-XRBs, respectively. We measure an HMXB production rate of 107–136 HMXBs/( M _⊙ yr ^−1 ) over the last 50 Myr and 150–199 HMXBs/( M _⊙ yr ^−1 ) over the last 80 Myr. For sources with compact object classifications from overlapping NuSTAR observations, we find a preference for giant/supergiant companion stars in black hole HMXBs and main-sequence companion stars in neutron star HMXBs.

Published in The Astrophysical Journal

ISSN: 1538-4357 (Online)
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science: Astronomy: Astrophysics
Website: https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0004-637X

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