 A wide star–black-hole binary system from radial-velocity measurementsJifeng Liu (),
Haotong Zhang (),
Andrew W. Howard,
Zhongrui Bai,
Youjun Lu,
Roberto Soria,
Stephen Justham,
Xiangdong Li,
Zheng Zheng,
Tinggui Wang,
Krzysztof Belczynski,
Jorge Casares,
Wei Zhang,
Hailong Yuan,
Yiqiao Dong,
Yajuan Lei,
Howard Isaacson,
Song Wang,
Yu Bai,
Yong Shao,
Qing Gao,
Yilun Wang,
Zexi Niu,
Kaiming Cui,
Chuanjie Zheng,
Xiaoyong Mu,
Lan Zhang,
Wei Wang,
Alexander Heger,
Zhaoxiang Qi,
Shilong Liao,
Mario Lattanzi,
Wei-Min Gu,
Junfeng Wang,
Jianfeng Wu,
Lijing Shao,
Rongfeng Shen,
Xiaofeng Wang,
Joel Bregman,
Rosanne Stefano,
Qingzhong Liu,
Zhanwen Han,
Tianmeng Zhang,
Huijuan Wang,
Juanjuan Ren,
Junbo Zhang,
Jujia Zhang,
Xiaoli Wang,
Antonio Cabrera-Lavers,
Romano Corradi,
Rafael Rebolo,
Yongheng Zhao,
Gang Zhao,
Yaoquan Chu and
Xiangqun Cui
Nature, 2019, vol. 575, issue 7784, 618-621 Abstract: Abstract All stellar-mass black holes have hitherto been identified by X-rays emitted from gas that is accreting onto the black hole from a companion star. These systems are all binaries with a black-hole mass that is less than 30 times that of the Sun1–4. Theory predicts, however, that X-ray-emitting systems form a minority of the total population of star–black-hole binaries5,6. When the black hole is not accreting gas, it can be found through radial-velocity measurements of the motion of the companion star. Here we report radial-velocity measurements taken over two years of the Galactic B-type star, LB-1. We find that the motion of the B star and an accompanying Hα emission line require the presence of a dark companion with a mass of $${68}_{-13}^{+11}$$68−13+11 solar masses, which can only be a black hole. The long orbital period of 78.9 days shows that this is a wide binary system. Gravitational-wave experiments have detected black holes of similar mass, but the formation of such massive ones in a high-metallicity environment would be extremely challenging within current stellar evolution theories. Date: 2019 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:575:y:2019:i:7784:d:10.1038_s41586-019-1766-2 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1766-2 Access Statistics for this article Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper More articles in Nature from Nature |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.