X-ray follow up observations of new IGRs

TL;DR

This paper reviews seven years of multi-instrument X-ray follow-up observations of new sources discovered by INTEGRAL, aiming to identify their nature and understand their astrophysical significance.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of X-ray observations to refine source positions and spectra, advancing the understanding of newly discovered IGR sources.

Findings

Refined X-ray positions for numerous IGR sources.

Identification of source counterparts at other wavelengths.

Insights into the nature and evolution of these sources.

Abstract

Since the launch of INTEGRAL in 2002, about 300 new sources have been discovered. Understanding the nature of these objects is of prime importance for many aspects of astrophysics, such as the evolution of stars, population of sources (Galactic and extra-Galactic), and ultimately the physics powering them. However, their nature cannot be established from the soft gamma-ray observations. The first step towards unveiling the nature of those sources is to refine their X-ray position, in order to finally find counterparts at other wavelengths. X-ray spectra are also of prime importance to obtain clues on the nature of the objects. Since the discovery of the first IGR in 2003, our group has been active in several aspects of these studies. Here, we present the main results we have obtained through 7 years of multi-instrumental (Chandra, XMM, Swift, RXTE) campaigns.