The TESS view of high mass X-ray binaries in the Magellanic Clouds

High-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) are extreme systems that consist of a O- or B-type donor star and a compact accretor; in a large number of these systems, the donor is a Be star. While these systems are identified by their X-ray properties, identifying and studying their optical counterparts helps us understand these systems in richer detail. The HMXBs in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds have been extensively studied over decades, and their proximity to TESS’s southern continuous viewing zone presents a prime opportunity for optical follow-up and monitoring. We present results from an ongoing pilot study of a sample of 275 HMXBs in the Magellanic Clouds, searching for orbital periods, and stellar oscillations in the donor stars. Over half of these targets have no prior measurements from optical counterparts, underscoring the utility of performing a homogeneous study with TESS. This work also serves as a proof-of-concept for a dedicated crowded field and faint variable target photometry pipeline, enabling future work to make the most of the sheer breadth of data available to us in the TESS FFIs, especially further studies of extragalactic sources.