Spatial and Binary Parameter Distributions of Black Hole Binaries in the Milky Way Detectable with Gaia

Soon after the Gaia data release (DR) 3 in June 2022, some candidates (and one confirmed) of detached black hole (BH) - luminous companion (LC) binaries have been reported. Existing and future detections of astrometric BH-LC binaries will shed light on the spatial distribution of these systems, which can deepen our understanding of the natal kicks and the underlying formation mechanism of BHs. By tracking Galactic orbits of BH-LC binaries obtained from BSE, we find that distributions of BH mass and the height from the Galactic plane |z| would help us give a constraint on supernova model. We also indicate that the correlations of (i) orbital periods and eccentricities, and (ii) BH mass and $|z|$ could be clues for the strength of natal kick, and that the correlations of ($P$, $Z/Z_\odot$) may tell us a clue for common envelope (CE) efficiency. We also discuss the possibility of forming BH-LC binaries like the BH binary candidates reported in Gaia DR3 and Gaia BH 1, finding that if the candidates as well as the confirmed binary originate from isolated binaries, they favor models which produce low-mass BHs and have high CE efficiencies exceeding unity.Comment: 25 pages, 17 figures. Accepted by Ap

Compact Binary Formation in Open Star Clulsters I: High Formation Efficiency of Gaia BHs and Their Multiplicities

Gaia BHs, black hole (BH) binaries discovered from database of an astrometric telescope Gaia, pose a question to the standard binary evolution model. We have assessed if Gaia BHs can be formed through dynamical capture in open clusters rather than through isolated binary evolution. We have performed gravitational $N$-body simulations of $100$ open clusters with $10^5 M_\odot$ in total for each metallicity $Z=0.02$, $0.01$, and $0.005$. We have discovered one Gaia BH-like binary escaping from an open cluster, and found that the formation efficiency of Gaia BHs in open clusters ($\sim 10^{-5} M_\odot^{-1}$) is larger than in isolated binaries ($\sim 10^{-8} M_\odot^{-1}$) by 3 orders of magnitude. The Gaia BH-like binary is the inner binary of a triple star system. Gaia BHs can have tertiary stars frequently, if they are formed in open clusters. We have estimated the number of Gaia BHs in the Milky Way disk to $1.6 \times 10^4$, large enough for the number of Gaia BHs discovered so far. Our results indicate that the discoveries of Gaia BHs do not request the reconstruction of the standard binary evolution model, and that Gaia BHs are a probe for the dynamics of open clusters already evaporated.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, submitted to MNRA

Search for a Black Hole Binary in Gaia DR3 Astrometric Binary Stars with Spectroscopic Data

We report the discovery of a candidate binary system consisting of a black hole (BH) and a red giant branch star from the Gaia DR3. This binary system is discovered from 64096 binary solutions for which both astrometric and spectroscopic data are available. For this system, the astrometric and spectroscopic solutions are consistent with each other, making this system a confident candidate of a BH binary. The primary (visible) star in this system, Gaia DR3 5870569352746779008, is a red giant branch whose mass is quite uncertain. Fortunately, albeit the uncertainty of the primary's mass, the secondary (dark) object in this system has a mass of $>5.25$ $M_\odot$ with a probability of $99$ %, based on the orbital parameters. The mass of the secondary object is much larger than the maximum neutron star mass ($\sim 2.0$ $M_\odot$), which indicates that the secondary object is likely a BH. We argue that, if this dark object is not a BH, this system must be a more exotic system, in which the primary red giant branch star orbits around a triple star system (or a higher-order multiple star system) whose total mass is more than $5.25$ $M_\odot$. Future deep photometric observations are awaited to rule out such an exotic possibility and to determine whether or not this system is a genuine BH binary. If this is a genuine BH binary, this has the longest period ($1352.25 \pm 45.50$ days) among discovered so far.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure, 2 tables. Comments welcom

An Early-warning System for Electromagnetic Follow-up of Gravitational-wave Events

Binary neutron stars (BNSs) will spend ≃10–15 minutes in the band of Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo detectors at design sensitivity. Matched-filtering of gravitational-wave (GW) data could in principle accumulate enough signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) to identify a forthcoming event tens of seconds before the companions collide and merge. Here we report on the design and testing of an early-warning GW detection pipeline. Early-warning alerts can be produced for sources that are at low enough redshift so that a large enough S/N accumulates ~10–60 s before merger. We find that about 7% (49%) of the total detectable BNS mergers will be detected 60 s (10 s) before the merger. About 2% of the total detectable BNS mergers will be detected before merger and localized to within 100 deg² (90% credible interval). Coordinated observing by several wide-field telescopes could capture the event seconds before or after the merger. LIGO–Virgo detectors at design sensitivity could facilitate observing at least one event at the onset of merger