Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T14:21:30.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Observational evidence for stellar-mass black holes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2006

Jorge Casares
Jorge Casares*
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38200 – La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Radial velocity studies of X-ray binaries provide the most solid evidence for the existence of stellar-mass black holes. We currently have 20 confirmed cases, with dynamical masses in excess of 3 M⊙. Accurate masses have been obtained for a subset of systems which gives us a hint at the mass spectrum of the black hole population. This review summarizes the history of black hole discoveries and presents the latest results in the field.

Keywords

Accretionaccretion disks – black hole physics – X-rays: binaries
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 2 , Symposium S238: Black Holes from Stars to Galaxies – Across the Range of Masses , August 2006 , pp. 3 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2007

References

Bahcall, J. N., Dyson, F. J., Katz, J. I. & Pacyńsky, B. 1974, ApJ, 189, L17CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bahcall, S., Bryan, W. & Selipsky, S. B. 1990, ApJ, 362, 251CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, C. T. 1972, Nature Phys. Sci., 235, 271CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, C. T. 1975, ApJ, 200, 269CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, G. E. & Bethe, H. A. 1994, ApJ, 423, 659CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casares, J. 2001, in: Lazaro, F. C. & Arevalo, M. J. (eds.), Binary Stars: Selected Topics on Observations and Physical Processes, LNP 563, p. 277CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casares, J., Charles, P. A. & Naylor, T. 1992, Nature, 355, 614CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casares, J. et al. , 2007, in preparationGoogle Scholar
Casares, J., Ribó, M., Ribas, I., Paredes, J. M., Martí, J. & Herrero, A. 2005, MNRAS, 364, 899CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charles, P. A. & Coe, M. J. 2006, in: Lewin, W. H. G. & Klis, M. van der (eds.), Compact Stellar X-ray Sources, Cambridge Astrophysics Series No. 39 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 215CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, J. S., Goodwin, S. P., Crowther, P. A., Kaper, L.Fairbairn, M.Langer, N. & Brocksopp, C. 2002, A&A, 392, 909Google Scholar
Done, C. & Gierliński, M. 1999, MNRAS, 342, 1041CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, J. L. & Ipser, J.R. 1987, ApJ, 314, 594CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fryer, C. L. & Kalogera, V. 2001, ApJ, 554, 548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greiner, J., Cuby, J. G. & McCaughrean, M. J. 2001, Nature, 414, 522CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hynes, R. I., Steeghs, D., Casares, J., Charles, P. A. & O'Brien, K. 2003, ApJ, 583, L95CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jonker, P. G., Steeghs, D., Nelemans, G. & van der, Klis M. 2005, MNRAS, 356, 621CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalogera, V. & Baym, G. 1996, ApJ, 470, L61CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, A. R. 1999, Phys. Rev., 311, 337Google Scholar
Lattimer, J. M. & Prakash, M. 2004, Science, 304, 536CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClintock, J. E. 1986, in: Mason, K. O.Watson, M. G. & White, N. E (eds.), The Physics of Accretion onto Compact Objects, (Heidelberg: Springer), vol. 266, p. 211Google Scholar
McClintock, J. E. & Remillard, R. A. 1986, ApJ, 308, 110CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClintock, J. E. & Remillard, R. A. 2006, in: Lewin, W. H. G. & Klis, M. van der (eds.), Compact Stellar X-ray Sources (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge), p. 157CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menou, K., Esin, A. A., Narayan, R., Garcia, M. R., Lasota, J.-P. & McClintock, J. E. 1999a, ApJ, 520, 276CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menou, K., Narayan, R., & Lasota, J.-P. 1999b, ApJ, 513, 811CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neil, E. T., Bailyn, C. D. & Cobb, B. E. 2006, ApJ, in press (astro-ph/0610480)Google Scholar
Nugis, T. & Lamers, H. J. G. L. M. 2000, A&A, 360, 227Google Scholar
Oppenheimer, J. R. & Volkoff, G. M 1939, Phys. Rev., 55, 374CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orosz, J. A. 2003, in: Hucht, K. A. van der, Herrero, A. & Esteban, C. (eds.) A Massive Star Odyssey, from Main Sequence to Supernova, Proc. IAU Symp. No. 212 (San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific) p. 365Google Scholar
Pfahl, E., Rappaport, S. & Podsiadlowski, P. 2003, ApJ, 597, 1036CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rappaport, S. A. & Joss, P. C.. 1983, in: Lewin, W. H. G. & Heuve, E. P. J.. van den (eds.) Accretion-driven X-ray Sources, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 33Google Scholar
Remillard, R. A., Dacheng, L., Cooper, R. L. & Narayan, R. 2006, ApJ, 646, 407CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhoades, C. E. & Ruffini, R. 1974, Phys. Rev. Lett., 32, 324CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Romani, R. W. 1998, A&A, 333, 583Google Scholar
Shahbaz, T. et al. 2004, ApJ, 616, L123CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shklovskii, I. S. 1967, Astron. Zhur., 44, 930Google Scholar
Stairs, I. H. 2004, Science, 304, 547Google Scholar
Steeghs, D. & Casares, J. 2002, ApJ, 568, 273CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woosley, S. E., Langer, N. & Weaver, T. A. 1995, ApJ, 448, 315CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, B. L. & Murdin, P. 1972, Nature, 235, 37CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yungelson, L. R. et al. 2006, A&A, 454, 559Google Scholar
Zurita, C. et al. 2002, MNRAS, 334, 999CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Życki, P. T., Done, C. & Smith, D. A. 1999, MNRAS, 309, 561CrossRefGoogle Scholar