MASS MEASUREMENTS OF BLACK HOLES IN X-RAY TRANSIENTS: IS THERE A MASS GAP?
@article{Kreidberg2012MASSMO, title={MASS MEASUREMENTS OF BLACK HOLES IN X-RAY TRANSIENTS: IS THERE A MASS GAP?}, author={Laura Kreidberg and Charles D. Bailyn and Will M. Farr and Vicky Kalogera}, journal={The Astrophysical Journal}, year={2012}, volume={757} }
We explore possible systematic errors in the mass measurements of stellar mass black holes (BHs). We find that significant errors can arise from the assumption of zero or constant emission from the accretion flow, which is commonly used when determining orbital inclination by modeling ellipsoidal variations. For A0620−00, the system with the best available data, we show that typical data sets and analysis procedures can lead to systematic underestimates of the inclination by 10° or more. A…
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