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Small Magellanic Cloud Deep Fields X-Ray Point Source Catalog

Published by High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | Metadata Last Checked: February 21, 2026 | Last Modified: 2026-02-17
This table contains the results of a pair of 100 ks Chandra observations of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) to survey high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), stars, and low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs)/cataclysmic variables down to L<sub>X</sub> = 4.3 x 10<sup>32</sup> erg s<sup>-1</sup>. The two SMC Deep Fields (DFs) are located in the most active star-forming region of the SMC bar, with Deep Field-1 positioned at the most pulsar-rich location identified from previous surveys. Two new pulsars were discovered in outburst, CXOU J004929.7-731058 (P = 892 s) and CXOU J005252.2-721715 (P = 326 s), and three new HMXB candidates were identified. Of the 15 Be-pulsars now known in the field, 13 were detected, with pulsations seen in 9 of them. Ephemerides demonstrate that 6 of the 10 pulsars known to exhibit regular outbursts were seen outside their periastron phase, and quiescent X-ray emission at L<sub>X</sub> = 10<sup>(33-34)</sup> erg s<sup>-1</sup> is shown to be common. Comparison with ROSAT, ASCA, and XMM-Newton catalogs resulted in positive identification of several previously ambiguous sources. Bright optical counterparts exist for 40 of the X-ray sources, of which 33 are consistent with early-type stars (M<sub>V</sub> < -2, B-V < 0.2), and are the subject of a companion paper to the reference paper. The results point to an underlying HMXB population density up to double that of active systems. The full catalog of 394 point sources is presented in this table; detailed analyses of the source timing and spectral properties are available in the reference paper. The aim-points for these Chandra observations were as follows: DF1 had J2000.0 coordinates of 00 53 34.50 -72 26 43.2 and DF2 had J2000.0 coordinates of 00 50 41.40 -73 16 10.3. This table was created by the HEASARC in August 2010 based on the electronic version of Table 2 from the reference paper which was obtained from the ApJ web site. This is a service provided by NASA HEASARC .

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