Abstract With the Chandra pointing observation of about 50 ks, we have detected 41 point sources in the X-ray relatively faint elliptical galaxy NGC 1407, most of which appear to be low mass X-ray binaries. In luminosity flux units, these resolved point sources contribute about 17.8 % of the total emission of the galaxy in 0.3--10 keV. Of the remaining diffuse emission, about 53.4 % (or 43.9 % of total) may arise from unresolved point sources. We find six ultraluminous X-ray sources with luminosities above 1039 erg s-1. This number is less than has been found in NGC 720, but more than in NGC 4697 and NGC 1553, so suggesting a possible correlation between the number of ULXs and the total X-ray luminosity of early-type galaxies. A central point-like source is detected whose luminosity (2.36±0.14×1039 erg s-1) is the highest among all resolved sources. However, because of its relatively low hardness ratio, we speculate that it is not likely to be a low luminosity AGN.

Keywords binaries: close --- galaxies: elliptical and lenticular --- galaxies: individual: NGC 1407 --- X-rays: binaries --- X-rays: galaxies

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