{"paper":{"title":"A Unicorn in Monoceros: the $3M_\\odot$ dark companion to the bright, nearby red giant V723 Mon is a non-interacting, mass-gap black hole candidate","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["astro-ph.HE","gr-qc"],"primary_cat":"astro-ph.SR","authors_text":"A. W. Howard, C. Badenes, C. S. Kochanek, D. Huber, D. Martin, D. M. Rowan, F.-J. Hambsch, H. Isaacson, I. Ilyin, J. L. Prieto, J. T. Hinkle, K. Auchettl, K. G. Strassmeier, K. Z. Stanek, L. A. Lopez, M. Weber, P. J. Vallely, S. J. Murphy, T. Jayasinghe, Todd A. Thompson, T. Pessi","submitted_at":"2021-01-06T19:00:01Z","abstract_excerpt":"We report the discovery of the closest known black hole candidate as a binary companion to V723 Mon. V723 Mon is a nearby ($d\\sim460\\,\\rm pc$), bright ($V\\simeq8.3$~mag), evolved ($T_{\\rm eff, giant}\\simeq4440$~K, and $L_{\\rm giant}\\simeq173~L_\\odot$) red giant in a high mass function, $f(M)=1.72\\pm 0.01~M_\\odot$, nearly circular binary ($P=59.9$ d, $e\\simeq 0$). V723 Mon is a known variable star, previously classified as an eclipsing binary, but its All-Sky Automated Survey (ASAS), Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT), and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) light curves are "},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2101.02212","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2101.02212/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}