Search for the infrared counterpart to XTE J1701-407
ATel #1630; David L. Kaplan (MIT), Deepto Chakrabarty (MIT)
on 25 Jul 2008; 09:23 UT
Credential Certification: Deepto Chakrabarty (deepto@space.mit.edu)
Subjects: Infra-Red, X-ray, Neutron Star, Transient
Referred to by ATel #: 1795
We acquired J, H, and Ks band images of the field containing the neutron star X-ray transient XTE J1701-407 (ATEL #1569, #1572, #1616, #1618, #1621) on UT 2008 July 25 using the PANIC camera on the 6.5-m Magellan/Baade telescope at Las Campanas, Chile. Typical seeing during these observations was 0.6". Astrometric and photometric solutions were derived using 2MASS sources in the field. A Ks (2.1 micron) band finder image is linked below.
The Ks band image contains four IR point sources (down to a limiting magnitude of 19) within the revised 1.7"-radius X-ray position error circle measured with Swift (Starling and Evans, ATEL #1621). The four sources have K-band magnitudes of 13.8(1), 14.2(1), 16.0(1), and 16.2(1). Further IR observations of this field may be able to identify the correct counterpart by detecting IR variability associated with the decay of the X-ray transient outburst. However, given the density of IR sources in this low-latitude field, there is a significant chance that none of these four candidates is the counterpart to XTE J1701-407.
Infrared finder chart for XTE J1701-407
