Two long-period X-ray pulsars detected in the SMC field around XTE J0055-727

An XMM-Newton target of opportunity observation of the field around the transient 18.37 s pulsar XTEJ0055-727 in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) revealed two bright, long-period X-ray pulsars in the EPIC data. A new pulsar, XMMUJ005517.9-723853, with a pulse period of 701.7 +/- 0.8 s was discovered and 500.0 +/- 0.2 s pulsations were detected from XMMUJ005455.4-724512 (=CXOUJ005455.6-724510), confirming the period found in Chandra data. We derive X-ray positions of RA = 00(h)54(m)55.(s)88, Dec = -72degrees45'10."5 and RA = 00(h)55(m)18.(s)44, Dec = -72degrees38'51."8 (J2000.0) with an uncertainty of 0."2 utilizing optical identification with OGLE stars. For both objects, the optical brightness and colours and the X-ray spectra are consistent with Be/X-ray binary systems in the SMC.