ZTF archival observations of LXT 221227A
ATel #15846; A. C. Rodriguez (Caltech), S. R. Kulkarni (Caltech)
on 5 Jan 2023; 04:17 UT
Credential Certification: Shri Kulkarni (srk@astro.caltech.edu)
Subjects: Optical, X-ray, A Comment
We have searched the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) alerts and archive for an optical counterpart to the X-ray transient LXT 221227A (ATel #15834,15843). We find no obvious optical counterpart within the reported error circle of 2.2 arcmin.
There are 9 ZTF alerts (5 sigma change) within the error circle of LXT 221227A, none of which have more than 1 data point outside of upper limits. The ZTF alert closest in time to LXT 221227A is ZTF22aajhbtc, which was detected on 04 May 2022 (UTC). This and the other 8 alerts are thus unlikely to be associated with LXT 221227A.
In order to determine if LXT 221227A is associated with a Galactic source, we searched the ZTF archive of light curves. Common Galactic X-ray sources can be periodic (e.g. compact object binaries, active main-sequence binaries), or aperiodic (e.g. flaring late-type dwarfs). Out of 240 light curves in the error circle, 56 have N > 30 data points and are thus suitable for a Lomb-Scargle periodicity analysis. We found no light curves with a significant periodicity (>5 sigma) that also pass a visual inspection.
