Optical counterparts of Chandra GBS sources

Using data from the Mosaic-II instrument on the Blanco 4m Telescope at CTIO, we gathered time-resolved photometric data on timescales from ~2hr to 8 days over the 3/4 of the X-ray survey containing sources from the initial GBS catalog.

Among the light curve morphologies we identify are flickering in interacting binaries, eclipsing sources, dwarf nova outbursts, ellipsoidal variations, long period variables, spotted stars, and flare stars. Eighty-seven percent of X-ray sources have at least one potential optical counterpart. Twenty-seven percent of these candidate counterparts are detectably variable; a much greater fraction than expected for randomly selected field stars, which suggests that most of these variables are real counterparts.