Discovering extragalactic high-mass X-ray binaries

Abstract

This TFG presents a search for high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) in M31 and M33 using Chandra X-ray data and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) optical data. Our selection crossmatches the two datasets, applies a selection cut based on the optical stellar mass and removes foreground contamination. This allows us to identify 18 HMXB candidates in M31 and 10 in M33. We contrasted our results with previous HMXB catalogs for both galaxies and with the classifications provided in the SIMBAD database. This last verification step revealed that several initial candidates were non-HMXB and were discarded from our search. The remaining sources form a clean sample for future studies. Our search allowed us to discover 12 new HMXB candidates that were not previously reported in the literature.