Mass Measurements of Black Holes in X-Ray Transients: Is There a Mass Gap?

Kreidberg, Laura; Bailyn, Charles D.; Farr, W. M.; Kalogera, V.

doi:10.1088/0004-637x/757/1/36

Cited by 300 publications

(338 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Then, the difference in radio normalisation attributed to Doppler beaming depends only on the orbital inclination of the system (assuming the jet axis is perpendicular to the orbital plane). Both XTE J1118+480 and V404 Cyg have well-determined orbital inclinations, of i = 68 • ± 2 • (Gelino et al 2006; see also Khargharia et al 2013 for a somewhat broader constraints and Farr et al 2011;Kreidberg et al 2012 for a comprehensive statistical analysis) and i = 67 Khargharia, Froning & Robinson 2010;Farr et al 2011;Kreidberg et al 2012), respectively. The inclination of GX 339-4 is only known to be < ∼ 60 • (Cowley et al 2002), and we assume a range from 45−60 • here (see Zdziarski et al 2004).…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

The radio/X-ray domain of black hole X-ray binaries at the lowest radio luminosities

Gallo¹,

Miller-Jones²,

Russell³

et al. 2014

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

155

200

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We report on deep, coordinated radio and X-ray observations of the black hole X-ray binary XTE J1118+480 in quiescence. The source was observed with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array for a total of 17.5 hrs at 5.3 GHz, yielding a 4.8±1.4 µJy radio source at a position consistent with the binary system. At a distance of 1.7 kpc, this corresponds to an integrated radio luminosity between 4-8 ×10 25 erg s −1 , depending on the spectral index. This is the lowest radio luminosity measured for any accreting black hole to date. Simultaneous observations with the Chandra X-ray Telescope detected XTE J1118+480 at 1.2 × 10 −14 erg s −1 cm −2 (1-10 keV), corresponding to an Eddington ratio of ∼4 × 10 −9 for a 7.5 M black hole. Combining these new measurements with data from the 2005 and 2000 outbursts available in the literature, we find evidence for a relationship of the form r =α+β X (where denotes logarithmic luminosities), with β = 0.72 ± 0.09. XTE J1118+480 is thus the third system -together with GX339-4 and V404 Cyg -for which a tight, non-linear radio/X-ray correlation has been reported over more than 5 dex in X . Confirming previous results, we find no evidence for a dependence of the correlation normalisation of an individual system on orbital parameters, relativistic boosting, reported black hole spin and/or black hole mass. We then perform a clustering and linear regression analysis on what is arguably the most up-to-date collection of coordinated radio and X-ray luminosity measurements from quiescent and hard state black hole X-ray binaries, including 24 systems. At variance with previous results, a two-cluster description is statistically preferred only for random errors < ∼ 0.3 dex in both r and X , a level which we argue can be easily reached when the known spectral shape/distance uncertainties and intrinsic variability are accounted for. A linear regression analysis performed on the whole data set returns a best-fitting slope β = 0.61 ± 0.03 and intrinsic scatter σ 0 = 0.31 ± 0.03 dex.

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Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

The radio/X-ray domain of black hole X-ray binaries at the lowest radio luminosities

Gallo¹,

Miller-Jones²,

Russell³

et al. 2014

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

155

200

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“…This has led various authors to suggest the presence of a mass gap between approximately 2-5 M [36, 37,52]. It remains to be seen whether this empirical mass gap originates from selection effects in the still small sample of BHs (although based on the IMF, we would expect lower-mass BHs to be more abundant), or from the underlying assumptions that enter into their mass estimates [53], or whether it is indeed suggestive of the properties of the relevant supernovae and their progenitor stars [10,38,54]. Our results below will show that the mass gap, especially if the transition is as sharp as currently indicated by both experiment and pertaining theoretical models, can be extremely well constrained by gravitational wave measurements.…”

Section: A the Stellar Initial Mass Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Black hole mass function from gravitational wave measurements

et al. 2017

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We examine how future gravitational-wave measurements from merging black holes (BHs) can be used to infer the shape of the black-hole mass function, with important implications for the study of star formation and evolution and the properties of binary BHs. We model the mass function as a power law, inherited from the stellar initial mass function, and introduce lower and upper mass cutoff parameterizations in order to probe the minimum and maximum BH masses allowed by stellar evolution, respectively. We initially focus on the heavier BH in each binary, to minimize model dependence. Taking into account the experimental noise, the mass measurement errors and the uncertainty in the redshift-dependence of the merger rate, we show that the mass function parameters, as well as the total rate of merger events, can be measured to < 10% accuracy within a few years of advanced LIGO observations at its design sensitivity. This can be used to address important open questions such as the upper limit on the stellar mass which allows for BH formation and to confirm or refute the currently observed mass gap between neutron stars and BHs. In order to glean information on the progenitors of the merging BH binaries, we then advocate the study of the two-dimensional mass distribution to constrain parameters that describe the two-body system, such as the mass ratio between the two BHs, in addition to the merger rate and mass function parameters. We argue that several years of data collection can efficiently probe models of binary formation, and show, as an example, that the hypothesis that some gravitational-wave events may involve primordial black holes can be tested. Finally, we point out that in order to maximize the constraining power of the data, it may be worthwhile to lower the signal-to-noise threshold imposed on each candidate event and amass a larger statistical ensemble of BH mergers.

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“…The BH masses in the 24 XRBs have been dynamically measured to be in the range of ∼ 2.7 M⊙ to 15 M⊙ (Casares & Jonker 2014, and references therein). However, there is statistical evidence for the presence of a dearth of NSs or BHs with masses ∼ 2 − 5M⊙ (Bailyn et al 1998;Özel et al 2010Farr et al 2011;Kreidberg et al 2012;Kiziltan et al 2013). This is in contrast with the traditional thought that the distribution of BH masses should decay with mass (e.g., Fryer 1999;Fryer & Kalogera 2001), suggesting that the physics of SN explosions that lead to the formation of BHs is still unclear Belczynski et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

On the formation of galactic black hole low-mass X-ray binaries

Wang

Jia

2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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Currently, there are 24 black hole (BH) X-ray binary systems that have been dynamically confirmed in the Galaxy. Most of them are low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) comprised of a stellar-mass BH and a low-mass donor star. Although the formation of these systems has been extensively investigated, some crucial issues remain unresolved. The most noticeable one is that, the low-mass companion has difficulties in ejecting the tightly bound envelope of the massive primary during the spiral-in process. While initially intermediate-mass binaries are more likely to survive the common envelope (CE) evolution, the resultant BH LMXBs mismatch the observations. In this paper, we use both stellar evolution and binary population synthesis to study the evolutionary history of BH LMXBs. We test various assumptions and prescriptions for the supernova mechanisms that produce BHs, the binding energy parameter, the CE efficiency, and the initial mass distributions of the companion stars. We obtain the birthrate and the distributions of the donor mass, effective temperature and orbital period for the BH LMXBs in each case. By comparing the calculated results with the observations, we put useful constraints on the aforementioned parameters. In particular, we show that it is possible to form BH LMXBs with the standard CE scenario if most BHs are born through failed supernovae.

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Mass Measurements of Black Holes in X-Ray Transients: Is There a Mass Gap?

Cited by 300 publications

References 61 publications

The radio/X-ray domain of black hole X-ray binaries at the lowest radio luminosities

The radio/X-ray domain of black hole X-ray binaries at the lowest radio luminosities

Black hole mass function from gravitational wave measurements

On the formation of galactic black hole low-mass X-ray binaries

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