How to reveal the mysteries of the most obscured high-energy sources of our Galaxy, discovered by INTEGRAL?

TL;DR

This paper discusses the discovery and multi-wavelength analysis of new high-energy binary systems by INTEGRAL, revealing obscured sources and supergiant fast X-ray transients, and exploring their absorbing environments.

Contribution

It introduces detailed optical to mid-infrared observations that characterize the nature and environment of these newly identified high-energy binary systems.

Findings

Obscured sources are enshrouded by dust and cold gas.

Supergiant fast X-ray transients have distinct transient behaviors.

Multi-wavelength data helps classify and understand these systems.

Abstract

A new type of high-energy binary systems has been revealed by the INTEGRAL satellite. These sources are in the course of being unveiled by means of multi-wavelength optical, near- and mid-infrared observations. Among these sources, two distinct classes are appearing: the first one is constituted of intrinsically obscured high-energy sources, of which IGR J16318-4848 seems to be the most extreme example. The second one is populated by the so-called supergiant fast X-ray transients, with IGR J17544-2619 being the archetype. We report here on multi-wavelength optical to mid-infrared observations of these systems. We show that in the case of the obscured sources 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 systems.