Abstract
Abstract In a multiwavelength programme dedicated to identifying optical counterparts of faint persistent X-ray sources in the Galactic bulge, we find an accurate X-ray position of SAX J1712.6–3739 through Chandra observations, and discover its faint optical counterpart using our data from EFOSC2 on the ESO 3.6-m telescope. We find this source to be a highly extincted neutron star low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) with blue optical colours. We serendipitously discover a relatively bright and large bow shock shaped nebula in our deep narrow-band Hα imaging, most likely associated with the X-ray binary. A nebula like this has never been observed before in association with a LMXB, and as such provides a unique laboratory to study the energetics of accretion and jets. We put forward different models to explain the possible ways the LMXB may form this nebulosity, and outline how they can be confirmed observationally.
Highlights
The bright - X-ray luminosities in the order of 1036 erg s−1 and higher - accreting black hole and neutron star X-ray binary systems are amongst the best studied Galactic X-ray sources
In a multiwavelength program dedicated to identifying optical counterparts of faint persistent X-ray sources in the Galactic Bulge, we find an accurate X-ray position of SAX J1712.6-3739 through Chandra observations, and discover its faint optical counterpart using our data from EFOSC2 on the ESO 3.6m telescope
Observations were performed in Service Mode with the EFOSC2 instrument on the ESO 3.6m telescope at La Silla, Chile, at the BeppoSAX position of SAX J1712.6-3739, as part of the survey described in W09
Summary
The bright - X-ray luminosities in the order of 1036 erg s−1 and higher - accreting black hole and neutron star X-ray binary systems are amongst the best studied Galactic X-ray sources. Many of these show a rich phenomenology, displaying spectral state changes, dramatic accretion outbursts and complex temporal behaviour on a wide range of temporal and spectral scales. The monitoring program of the Galactic bulge source population with the RXTE satellite through PCA scans started in 1999 and has revealed many new bright X-ray transients It detected a large number of these faint, persistent sources, for which relatively little is known. To constrain the current and past energy output of this candidate neutron star UCXB
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