{"paper":{"title":"Searching for Isolated Black Hole Candidates within 15 pc of the Solar System in Gaia DR3","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"Gaia DR3 search within 15 pc identifies five astrometric black hole candidates but dismisses them all as spurious after multi-wavelength checks.","cross_cats":["gr-qc"],"primary_cat":"astro-ph.HE","authors_text":"Abdurakhmon Nosirov, Andrea Santangelo, Cosimo Bambi, Fu-Guo Xie, Jiachen Jiang, Jos de Bruijne, Leda Gao","submitted_at":"2026-01-20T21:42:25Z","abstract_excerpt":"Theoretical models predict that the Galaxy hosts $10^8$-$10^9$ black holes formed from the complete gravitational collapse of heavy stars and that most of these black holes are isolated, without any companion. Within 15 pc of the Solar System ($\\sim 50$ ly), there may be a few black holes. If located inside one of the Local Interstellar Clouds - which occupy 5-20% of this local volume - an isolated black hole could produce detectable electromagnetic emission via accretion from the interstellar medium, given the capabilities of current or near-future observatories. However, precise predictions "},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"We have searched the Gaia DR3 catalog for candidate isolated black holes accreting from the interstellar medium and identified five sources. All candidates lie close to the Galactic plane, making them likely spurious astrometric solutions... Our search for infrared and radio emission from these sources further suggests that they are unlikely to be black holes accreting from the interstellar medium.","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"The models used to predict detectable accretion spectra and flux thresholds carry large uncertainties, as stated in the abstract; if those spectra are inaccurate, the dismissal of the five candidates as non-black-hole sources could be invalid.","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"No credible isolated black hole candidates were found in a Gaia DR3 search within 15 pc of the Sun after multi-wavelength checks dismissed five sources as probable artifacts.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"Gaia DR3 search within 15 pc identifies five astrometric black hole candidates but dismisses them all as spurious after multi-wavelength checks.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"11e3e720ad667a2d0e79b8cf7bc3a888c6ea771e55e0bcfa3d69ba82c005440e"},"source":{"id":"2601.14499","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":"8f2aeab8-cb38-4659-b0a3-d8934eb0a896","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-16T11:58:04.878847Z","strongest_claim":"We have searched the Gaia DR3 catalog for candidate isolated black holes accreting from the interstellar medium and identified five sources. All candidates lie close to the Galactic plane, making them likely spurious astrometric solutions... Our search for infrared and radio emission from these sources further suggests that they are unlikely to be black holes accreting from the interstellar medium.","one_line_summary":"No credible isolated black hole candidates were found in a Gaia DR3 search within 15 pc of the Sun after multi-wavelength checks dismissed five sources as probable artifacts.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"The models used to predict detectable accretion spectra and flux thresholds carry large uncertainties, as stated in the abstract; if those spectra are inaccurate, the dismissal of the five candidates as non-black-hole sources could be invalid.","pith_extraction_headline":"Gaia DR3 search within 15 pc identifies five astrometric black hole candidates but dismisses them all as spurious after multi-wavelength checks."},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2601.14499/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":52,"sample":[{"doi":"10.1103/physrevlett.116.221101","year":2016,"title":"P., Abbott, R., Abbott, T","work_id":"91246586-e00f-40f8-8ef9-9666ae449a3d","ref_index":1,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"10.1093/mnras/staf979","year":2025,"title":"Abdulghani, Y., Lohfink, A. M., & Chauhan, J. 2025, MNRAS, 541, 553, doi: 10.1093/mnras/staf979","work_id":"6ca9c217-8645-4443-84ff-6044920dc2af","ref_index":2,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"10.3847/1538-3881/abd806","year":2021,"title":"Estimating distances from parallaxes. V: Geometric and photogeometric distances to 1.47 billion stars in Gaia Early Data Release 3","work_id":"11e3916b-515c-4528-8feb-7528b967b896","ref_index":3,"cited_arxiv_id":"2012.05220","is_internal_anchor":true},{"doi":"10.1103/revmodphys.89.025001","year":2025,"title":"2017a, Reviews of Modern Physics, 89, 025001, doi: 10.1103/RevModPhys.89.025001 —","work_id":"ef2b7a09-b7fb-4399-b3c9-ff815d36c623","ref_index":4,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"10.1007/978-981-97-2871-8","year":2024,"title":"2024, Recent Progress on Gravity Tests","work_id":"f15d1123-ec35-4351-8fad-f6449314fc97","ref_index":5,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false}],"resolved_work":52,"snapshot_sha256":"32e4a906b740a9ed85580b17d455daf24ffe795c5df0faad359b419d83b55d79","internal_anchors":2},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":2,"snapshot_sha256":"4fb2ce603579f85b8b70838453ba41885f2422894f77c5d1196ba6683fe09e98"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}