Optical identification of IGR J19140+0951
IGR J19140+0951 was discovered by INTEGRAL in 2003 in the 4-100 keV band. Observations with INTEGRAL and RXTE provide a tentative identification as a high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) with a neutron star as accretor. However, an optical counterpart was thus far not established, nor was the presence of a...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2006
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| Summary: | IGR J19140+0951 was discovered by INTEGRAL in 2003 in the 4-100 keV band. Observations with INTEGRAL and RXTE provide a tentative identification as a high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) with a neutron star as accretor. However, an optical counterpart was thus far not established, nor was the presence of a pulsar which is commonly observed in HMXBs. We observed IGR J19140+0951 with Chandra and find the source to be active at a similar flux as previous measurements. The lightcurve shows a marginally significant oscillation at 6.5 ks which requires confirmation. We determine a sub-arcsecond position from the Chandra data and identify the heavily reddened optical counterpart 2MASS 19140422+0952577 in the 2MASS catalog. Optical follow-up observations with the William Herschel Telescope at La Palma exhibit a continuum spectrum coming out of extinction above 7000 Å without strong absorption or emission features. V, I and Ks band photometry point to an optical counterpart with an extinction of Av = 11 ± 2. The extinction is consistent with the interstellar value. None of the data reject the suspicion that IGR J19140+0951 is an HMXB with additional circumstellar obscuration around the accretor. © ESO 2006. |
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