Possible optical counterparts of ULXs in NGC 1672

TL;DR

This study uses multi-mission archival data to identify optical counterparts of ULX candidates in NGC 1672, providing insights into their nature through precise astrometry and spectral analysis.

Contribution

The paper presents the first identification of optical counterparts for several ULX candidates in NGC 1672 using combined Chandra and HST data, improving source localization.

Findings

Optical counterparts found for X2 and X6.

Potential counterparts for X1, X5, and X7 within error radii.

Evidence suggests specific nature of X1 and X2 based on spectral and temporal analyses.

Abstract

In this study, we use archival data from HST, Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Swift-XRT, to probe the nature of 9 (X1-X9) candidate ULXs in NGC 1672. Our study focuses on using the precise source positions obtained via improved astrometry based on {\it Chandra} and HST observations to search for and identify optical counterparts for these ULXs.Unique optical counterparts are identified for X2 an{d X6; two potential counterparts were determined for X1, X5 and X7 within the respective error radii while no optical counterparts were found for the remaining four sources. Based on spectral energy distributions (SEDs), X-ray and optical temporal analyses, some evidences about the nature of X1 and X2 were obtained.