3/10/2021

Early X-ray missions like Uhuru and OSO-7 revealed that Galactic globular clusters (GCs) host an overabundance of bright (L_X>10^36 erg/s) X-ray sources, which were ascribed to close binaries created by dynamical encounters in the very dense GC cores. The most typical population consists of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), where neutron stars or black holes accrete matter from low-mass companions. With the advent of the Chandra X-ray Observatory’s superior sensitivity and angular resolution, a plethora of faint (L_X <10^33 erg/s) X-ray sources have been detected in many GCs. The faint sources consist of several different classes, including quiescent LMXBs, millisecond pulsars, cataclysmic variables, and chromospherically active binaries. In this seminar, I will present my work on performing classification of these faint sources in multiple GCs combining observations in X-ray, UV, optical, and radio. Studies of these sources not just enrich our sample of accreting compact objects but complement our understanding of the underlying dynamics.