Chandra Observations of the X-ray Binary Population in the Field of the Dwarf Galaxy IC 10

IC 10 is a dwarf galaxy in Cassiopeia, located at a distance of 660 kpc, and hosts a young stellar population, a large number of Wolf-Rayet stars, and a large number of massive stars in general. Utilizing a series of 11 Chandra observations (spanning 2003-2021, and total exposure of 235.1 ks), 375 point sources of X-ray emission are detected. Similar studies have been conducted earlier in the central region of IC 10. Here, we consider all regions covered by Chandra-ACIS. By comparing our list of X-ray sources with a published optical catalog, we discovered that 146 sources have optical counterparts. We also determined a list of blue supergiant (SG) stars with XRB companions by using an optical colormagnitude selection criterion to isolate the blue SGs. Blue SG-XRBs form a major class of progenitors of double-degenerate binaries. Hence, their numbers are an important factor in modeling the rate of gravitational-wave sources. Identifying the nature of individual sources is necessary as it paves the way toward a comprehensive census of XRBs in IC 10, enabling thus meaningful comparisons with other Local-Group galaxies exhibiting starbursts, such as the Magellanic Clouds.