  The progenitors of hydrogen-poor core-collapse supernovae (SNe) of types Ib,
Ic and IIb are believed to have shed their outer hydrogen envelopes either by
extremely strong stellar winds, characteristic of classical Wolf-Rayet stars,
or by binary interaction with a close companion star. The exact nature of the
progenitors and the relative importance of these processes are still open
questions. One relatively unexplored method to constrain the progenitors is to
search for high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXB) at SN locations in pre-explosion
X-ray observations. In a HMXB, one star has already exploded as a core-collapse
SN, producing a neutron star or a stellar-mass black hole. It is likely that
the second star in the system will also explode as a supernova, which should
cause a detectable long-term change in the system's X-ray luminosity. In
particular, a pre-explosion detection of a HMXB coincident with a SN could be
informative about the progenitor's nature. In this paper we analyze
pre-explosion ACIS observations of 18 nearby type Ib, Ic and IIb supernovae
from the Chandra X-ray observatory public archive. Two sources that could
potentially be associated with the supernova are identified in the sample.
Additionally we make similar post-explosion measurements for 46 SNe. Although
our modelling indicates that progenitor systems with compact binary companions
are probably quite rare, studies of this type can in the future provide more
stringent constraints as the number of discovered nearby SNe and suitable
pre-explosion X-ray data are both increasing.
