The X-Ray Globular Cluster Population in NGC 1399

We report on the {\it Chandra} observations of the elliptical galaxy NGC1399, concentrating on the X-ray sources identified with globular clusters(GCs). A large fraction of the 2-10 keV X-ray emission in the $8' \times 8'${\it Chandra} image is resolved into point sources with luminosities $\ge 5\times 10^{37}$ \ergsec. These sources are most likely Low Mass X-ray Binaries(LMXBs). In a region imaged by {\it HST} about 70% of the X-ray sources arelocated within GCs. This association suggests that in giant elliptical galaxiesluminous X-ray binaries preferentially form in GCs. Many of the GC sources havesuper-Eddington luminosities (for an accreting neutron star) and their averageluminosity is higher than the non-GC sources. The X-ray spectral properties ofboth GC and non-GC sources are similar to those of LMXBs in our Galaxy. Two ofthe brightest sources, one of which is in a GC, have an ultra-soft spectrum,similar to that seen in the high state of black hole candidates. The``apparent'' super-Eddington luminosity in many cases may be due to multipleLMXB systems within individual GCs, but with some of the most extremelyluminous systems containing massive black holes.Comment: accepted in ApJ letter. 10 pages 5 figure