Stavros

Symbiotic systems (SySt) are interacting binary systems with a cool giant star and a hot star, generally a white dwarf. These systems are considered as potential candidates for type Ia supernova (SN Ia) progenitors. For verifying this hypothesis the total number of these systems has to be compared with the SN Ia rate in a galaxy to probe the connection between SySt and SNe Ia.
We have started a systematic survey of SySt in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) via the detection of the O VI λ6825 Raman scattered line, commonly observed in SySt. From September to December 2015, eleven 6.8×6.8arcmin2 fields of the SMC were observed (one of them centered on a known SySt – SMC 3), by using FORS2 (FOcal Reducer and Spectrograph) at the Very Large Telescope (VLT). From the prelimianry analysis of these data we were able to recover the known SySt as well as to identify 18 new O VI Raman scattered emitters. Seven out of the 18 candidates have 2MASS data, which allow us to plot them together with 19 IPHAS Galactic disk SySt and the 8 know SySt in the SMC in the J-H vs H-Ks diagnostic diagram.