2020/10/31 by Margaret Lazzarini, Benjamin F. Williams, Meredith Durbin +9 · 16 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Extinction (optical mineralogy) #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Luminosity #Physics #RADIUS #Spectral energy distribution #Star formation #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/abccca
published in The Astrophysical Journal 906(2), 120 (IOP Publishing) · accepted for publication in ApJ, 24 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables
openalex created_date 2020/10/22 · arxiv created 2020/11/19 · openalex publication_date 2021/01/01 · arxiv updated 2021/01/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/08
Abstract We present our analysis of high-quality high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) candidates in M31 selected from point-source optical counterpart candidates from the Chandra-PHAT survey catalog. We fit the spectral energy distributions of optical counterpart candidates using the Bayesian Extinction and Stellar Tool. We used the best-fit luminosity, effective temperature, radius, and dust reddening for the companion stars in combination with the local star formation history, dust maps of M31, published X-ray spectral fits from XMM-Newton observations, IR colors, and Chandra X-ray hardness ratios to determine our best sample of HMXB candidates. The age distribution of the HMXB sample appears peaked between 10 and 50 Myr, consistent with findings in other nearby galaxies. Using the age distribution and mean star formation rate (SFR), we find that 80–136 HMXBs were produced per unit of SFR over the last 50 Myr and 89–163 HMXBs were produced per unit of SFR over the last 80 Myr, if we expand the assumed age limit beyond the lifetimes of single massive stars. We also calculate the HMXB production rate (HMXBs/ M ⊙ ) over time, which ranges from 7 × 10 −7 to 4 × 10 −6 HMXBs/ M ⊙ over the last 80 Myr, in agreement with both theoretical predictions and measured production rates in other galaxies.