The XMM-Newton/Chandra monitoring campaign of the Galactic center region: description of the program and preliminary results

Wijnands, R., in 't Zand, J.J.M., Rupen, M., Maccarone, T.J., Homan, J., Cornelisse, R., Fender, R., Grindlay, J., van der Klis, M., Kuulkers, E., Markwardt, C.B., Miller-Jones, J.C.A. and Wang, Q.D. (2006) The XMM-Newton/Chandra monitoring campaign of the Galactic center region: description of the program and preliminary results. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 449 (3), 1117-1127. (doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20054129).

Abstract

We present the first results of our X-ray monitoring campaign on a 1.7 square degree region centered on Sgr A* using the satellites XMM-Newton and Chandra. The purpose of this campaign is to monitor the behavior (below 10 keV) of X-ray sources (both persistent and transient) which are too faint to be detected by monitoring instruments aboard other satellites currently in orbit (e.g., Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer; INTEGRAL). Our first monitoring observations (using the HRC-I aboard Chandra) were obtained on June 5, 2005. Most of the sources detected could be identified with foreground sources, such as X-ray active stars. In addition we detected two persistent X-ray binaries (1E 1743.1-2843; 1A 1742-294), two faint X-ray transients (GRS 1741.9-2853; XMM J174457-2850.3), as well as a possible new transient source at a luminosity of a few times 1034 erg s-1. We report on the X-ray results on these systems and on the non-detection of the transients in follow-up radio data using the Very Large Array. We discuss how our monitoring campaign can help to improve our understanding of the different types of X-ray transients (i.e., the very faint ones).

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