Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University

Date of Award

1-21-2026

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Physics

College

College of Science and Health

First Advisor

Bernhard Beck-Winchatz

Abstract

Globular clusters provide valuable insight into the formation of galaxies and stars. As some of the oldest structures in the Milky Way Galaxy, the stars that make up clusters are some of the oldest witnesses to the formation of our Galaxy, and in some cases, the Universe itself. Additionally, clusters are an excellent source of X-ray information, and the positions of X-ray sources tend to correlate with the positions of globular clusters. As such, studying globular clusters is an excellent way to study galactic compact X-ray binary stars. We present a study of the globular cluster NGC 6266, and perform point-spread photometry on identified stars within using Hubble ACS data in the F435W, F625W, and F658N filters. After measuring HST magnitudes, we have correlated the positions of the identified stars with the position of X-ray sources observed with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and identified candidate optical counterparts of compact X-ray binaries in the cluster. Using the combined datasets, we have created color-magnitude and color-color diagrams. We present the optical magnitudes and colors of the candidate optical counterparts of 32 X-ray sources, composed of 7 millisecond pulsars, 12 cataclysmic variables, 2 low-mass X-ray binaries, 10 active binaries, 1 black hole, and 6 background objects. 8 fields contain only saturated objects and main-sequence stars, resulting in no classification, although one can be identified as an LMXB system due to its X-ray luminosity and softness without an optical component identification.

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