The Galactic Bulge Survey: X-ray observations

Among the goals of the GBS are constraining the neutron star (NS) equation of state and the black hole (BH) mass distribution via the identification of eclipsing NS and BH low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). The GBS targets two strips of 6{deg}x1{deg} (12deg^2^ in total), one above (1{deg}<b<2{deg}) and one below (-2{deg}<b<-1{deg}) the Galactic plane in the direction of the Galactic center at both X-ray and optical wavelengths.

By avoiding the Galactic plane (-1{deg}<b<1{deg}) we limit the influence of extinction on the X-ray and optical emission but still sample relatively large number densities of sources. The survey is designed such that a large fraction of the X-ray sources can be identified from their optical spectra. The X-ray survey, by design, covers a large area on the sky while the depth is shallow using 2ks per Chandra pointing.