Detecting Detached Black Hole binaries through Photometric Variability

Understanding the connection between the properties of black holes (BHs) and their progenitors is interesting in many branches of astrophysics. Discovering BHs in detached orbits with luminous companions (LCs) promises to help create this map since the LC and BH progenitor are expected to have the s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Chawla, Chirag, Chatterjee, Sourav, Shah, Neev, Breivik, Katelyn
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 24.09.2024
Subjects
Astrometry
Binary stars
Black holes
Detaching
Interstellar extinction
Metallicity
Orbits
Photometry
Progenitors (astrophysics)
Radial velocity
Star & galaxy formation
Star formation
Tidal power
Variability
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Summary:Understanding the connection between the properties of black holes (BHs) and their progenitors is interesting in many branches of astrophysics. Discovering BHs in detached orbits with luminous companions (LCs) promises to help create this map since the LC and BH progenitor are expected to have the same metallicity and formation time. We explore the possibility of detecting BH-LC binaries in detached orbits using photometric variations of the LC flux, induced by tidal ellipsoidal variation, relativistic beaming, and self-lensing. We create realistic present-day populations of detached BH-LC binaries in the Milky Way (MW) using binary population synthesis where we adopt observationally motivated initial stellar and binary properties, star formation history and present-day distribution of these sources in the MW based on detailed cosmological simulations. We test detectability of these sources via photometric variability by Gaia and TESS missions by incorporating their respective detailed detection biases as well as interstellar extinction. We find that Gaia is expected to resolve 300--1,000 (700--1,500) detached BH--LC binaries with SNR>10 (1) depending on the photometric precision and details of supernova physics. Similarly, the number of resolved BH--LC binaries with TESS are ~50--200 (140--350). We find that 136^{+15}_{-15} BH--LC binaries would be common between Gaia and TESS. Moreover, between ~60--70 (50--200) BH--LC binaries identifiable using photometry with SNR >10 may also be resolved using Gaia's radial velocity (astrometry).
ISSN:2331-8422