Optical to Mid-Infrared observations revealing the most obscured high-energy sources of the Galaxy
Abstract
Description
A new type of sources has been discovered by INTEGRAL. These sources are in the course of being unveiled by means of multi-wavelength optical, near- and mid-infrared observations. Among the high-energy binary sources, two distinct classes are appearing. The first class is constituted of intrinsically obscured high-energy sources, of which IGR J16318-4848 seems to be the archetype. The second class is populated by the so-called supergiant fast X-ray transients, with IGR J17544-2619 being the archetype. We report here on multi-wavelength observations of sources from these two classes, focusing on optical to mid-infrared observations. We show that in the case of the obscured sources IGR J16318-4848 and IGR J16195-4945, our observations suggest the presence of absorbing material (dust and/or cold gas) enshrouding the whole binary system. We then discuss the nature of these two different types of sources.
Proceedings of The 6th INTEGRAL Workshop, The Obscured Universe, Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia, July 2-8, 2006, to be published by ESA's Publications Division in December 2006 as Special Publication SP-622, 8 pages, 7 figures
Proceedings of The 6th INTEGRAL Workshop, The Obscured Universe, Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia, July 2-8, 2006, to be published by ESA's Publications Division in December 2006 as Special Publication SP-622, 8 pages, 7 figures