2017/08/14 by Theo F. J. van Grunsven, T. F. J. van Grunsven, Peter G. Jonker +4
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Black hole (networking) #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Light curve #Photometry (optics) #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Stars #Supernova #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stx2071
9 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS
openalex publication_date 2017/08/14 · arxiv created 2017/08/28 · arxiv updated 2017/08/29 · openalex created_date 2017/08/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The mass distribution of stellar-mass black holes can provide important clues to supernova modelling, but observationally it is still ill constrained. Therefore, it is of importance to make black hole mass measurements as accurate as possible. The X-ray transient 1A 0620–00 is well studied, with a published black hole mass of 6.61 ± 0.25 M⊙, based on an orbital inclination i of 51|.∘|0 ± 0|.∘|9. This was obtained by Cantrell et al. (2010) as an average of independent fits to V-, I- and H-band light curves. In this work, we perform an independent check on the value of i by re-analysing existing YALO/SMARTS V-, I- and H-band photometry, using different modelling software and fitting strategy. Performing a fit to the three light curves simultaneously, we obtain a value for i of 54|.∘|1 ± 1|.∘|1, resulting in a black hole mass of 5.86 ± 0.24 M⊙. Applying the same model to the light curves individually, we obtain 58|.∘|2 ± 1|.∘|9, 53|.∘|6 ± 1|.∘|6 and 50|.∘|5 ± 2|.∘|2 for V-, I- and H-band, respectively, where the differences in best-fitting i are caused by the contribution of the residual accretion disc light in the three different bands. We conclude that the mass determination of this black hole may still be subject to systematic effects exceeding the statistical uncertainty. Obtaining more accurate masses would be greatly helped by continuous phase-resolved spectroscopic observations simultaneous with photometry.