ROSAT position of the transient bursting pulsar GRO J1744-28 and identification of its near-infrared counterpart

We report the detection with ROSAT of a transient X-ray source at R.A. 17h44m331 and decl. -28°44'29'' (J2000), which we identify with the transient bursting pulsar GRO J1744-28. We have made K-band observations of the X-ray source at ESO and the US Naval Observatory, Flagstaff Station. A K-band counterpart of this transient previously identified by us on an image taken 1996 February 8 by Blanco et al. is found to be detected during only two (of seven) short exposures of which this image is composed. We cannot definitely reject the reality of this variable object but feel that it is not possible to rule out an instrumental effect. The lack of a persistent K-band counterpart of GRO J1744-28 is consistent with the idea that the low-energy emission from this object is dominated by reprocessing of X-rays in an accretion disk.

[1]  J. Squifflet,et al.  Radioiodine treatment of thyroid carcinoma in patients on maintenance hemodialysis. , 1996, Thyroid : official journal of the American Thyroid Association.

[2]  Thomas A. Prince,et al.  Discovery of hard X-ray pulsations from the transient source GRO J1744 – 28 , 1996, Nature.

[3]  J. Cannizzo,et al.  The Nature of the Giant Outbursts in the Bursting Pulsar GRO J1744–28 , 1996, astro-ph/9605127.

[4]  D. York,et al.  An Excess of C IV Absorbers in Luminous Quasars: Evidence for Gravitational Lensing? , 1996, astro-ph/9605113.

[5]  Robert E. Rutledge,et al.  A Comparison between the Rapid Burster and GRO J1744–28 , 1996 .

[6]  R. Nichol,et al.  Optical/Near-Infrared Observations of GRO J1744–28 , 1996, astro-ph/9610079.

[7]  D. Lamb,et al.  The effect of deep hydrogen burning in the accreted envelope of a neutron star on the properties of X-ray bursts , 1996 .

[8]  C. Kouveliotou,et al.  A new type of transient high-energy source in the direction of the Galactic Centre , 1996, Nature.

[9]  Charles D. Dermer,et al.  On the Nature of the Bursting X-Ray Pulsar GRO J1744–28 , 1996, astro-ph/9602102.

[10]  L. Cominsky,et al.  X-ray, radio, and infrared observations of the 'rapid burster' /MXB 1730-335/ during 1979 and 1980 , 1983 .

[11]  A. Jones,et al.  IR flashes from the X-ray rapid burster , 1980, Nature.

[12]  N. Ashok,et al.  Discovery of IR bursts from Liller I/MXB1730–333 , 1979, Nature.

[13]  R. Stellingwerf.  Period determination using phase dispersion minimization , 1978 .

[14]  G. Clark,et al.  The discovery of rapidly repetitive X-ray bursts from a new source in Scorpius , 1976 .

[15]  G. Rieke,et al.  The interstellar extinction law from 1 to 13 microns. , 1985 .

[16]  H. L. Johnson,et al.  Astronomical Measurements in the Infrared , 1966 .