Physics Colloquium: The recently discovered three dormant black holes in wide binaries by Gaia astrometry
Tsevi Mazeh
Prof. Yuval Ne'eman Annual Memorial Lecture
Zoom: https://tau-ac-il.zoom.us/j/86547186243
Abstract:
Gaia is a European global space astrometry mission, building the largest, most precise three-dimensional map of our Galaxy by surveying nearly two billion objects. The talk will discuss one of highlights of the mission, the recent discovery of three dormant black holes (BH), Gaia BH1, BH2 and BH3 in binary systems with orbital periods of 180-4000 days. These discoveries open a window to new population of BHs not known till now, suggesting, at least for BH1and BH2, surprising evolutionary tracks. BH3, with a mass of 33 M_solar, is more massive than any other Galactic stellar-origin BH known, and its mass equals the peak in the mass distribution of extra-galactic BHs discovered with gravitational-wave detectors. The Galactic orbit of BH3 and its metallicity indicate that it probably belongs to the ED-2 stream, which likely originated from a globular cluster that was disrupted by the Milky Way.
Event Organizer: Dr. Yohai Bar Sinai
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