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Description
We report on Chandra observations of the central region of M31. By combining eight Chandra ACIS-I observations taken between 1999 and 2001, we have identified 204 X-ray sources within the central ~17'x17' region of M31, with a detection limit of ~2x10^35^erg/s. Of these 204 sources, 22 are identified with globular clusters, two with supernova remnants, nine with planetary nebulae, and nine with supersoft sources. By comparing individual images, about 50% of the sources are variable on timescales of months. We also found 13 transients, with light curves showing a variety of shapes. We also extracted the energy spectra of the 20 brightest sources; they can be well fitted by a single power law with a mean photon index of 1.8. The spectral shapes of 12 sources are shown to be variable, suggesting that they went through state changes.
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