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Pulsar-Black Hole Binaries in the Galactic Center

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Paper breakdownThe authors' claims, conditions and measurements, as JSON Signed receiptProof this review has not been altered
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C.-A. Faucher-Giguere (1), Abraham Loeb (2) ((1) UC Berkeley, (2) Harvard University)

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Submitted 2 Dec 2010

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim We show that if the central parsec around Sgr A* harbors a cluster of ~25,000 stellar BHs (as predicted by mass segregation arguments) and if it is also rich in recycled pulsar binaries (by analogy with globular clusters), then 3-body exchange interactions should produce PSR-BHs in the Galactic center.

how it is stated · asserted 0.71 read the record →

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arXiv ID1012.0573 (version 2)
Pith IDDUHDE52D, Pith's permanent record of this paper and its review
Citation(2) Harvard University), Abraham Loeb (2) ((1) UC Berkeley, C.-A. Faucher-Giguere (1). "Pulsar-Black Hole Binaries in the Galactic Center." arXiv:1012.0573 (2010). https://pith.science/paper/DUHDE52D
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The compiled record

The paper's own sentences, arranged. Each label is drawn from a closed vocabulary; the number beside it is the probability the classifier gave that label. Numbers in the tables are the authors', checked by code. No sentence in this record was written by a model.

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Compiled by classifier-1.13-20260917 via OpenRouter, question bank abstract-p1-20260923, 2026-09-23: 1 request, 5,915 input tokens, $0.0002 reported.

What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.07 · states limitation 0.34 · human participants 0.01 · controlled comparison 0.03 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.95 · compares with prior results 0.20 · mentions code or data availability 0.01.

The abstract, sentence by sentence

arXiv listing abstract v2. Results and the main claim are underlined; .

Binaries consisting of a pulsar and a black hole (BH) are a holy grail of astrophysics, both for their significance for stellar evolution and for their potential application as probes of strong gravity. In spite of extensive surveys of our Galaxy and its system of globular clusters, no pulsar-black hole (PSR-BH) binary has been found to date. Clues as to where such systems might exist are therefore highly desirable. We show that if the central parsec around Sgr A* harbors a cluster of ~25,000 stellar BHs (as predicted by mass segregation arguments) and if it is also rich in recycled pulsar binaries (by analogy with globular clusters), then 3-body exchange interactions should produce PSR-BHs in the Galactic center. Simple estimates of the formation rate and survival time of these binaries suggest that a few PSR-BHs should be present in the central parsec today. The proposed formation mechanism makes unique predictions for the PSR-BH properties: 1) the binary would reside within ~1 pc of Sgr A*; 2) the pulsar would be recycled, with a period of ~1 to a few tens of milliseconds, and a low magnetic field B<~10^10 G; 3) the binary would have high eccentricity, e~0.8, but with a large scatter; and 4) the binary would be relatively wide, with semi-major axis a_b~0.1 - >~3 AU. The potential discovery of a PSR-BH binary therefore provides a strong motivation for deep, high-frequency radio searches for recycled pulsars toward the Galactic center.

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#sentencerolethe authors' own workstates the main conclusionstrength
s0 Binaries consisting of a pulsar and a black hole (BH) are a holy grail of astrophysics, both for their significance for stellar evolution and for their potential application as probes of strong gravity. background 1.00 0.04 0.04 asserted 0.99
s1 In spite of extensive surveys of our Galaxy and its system of globular clusters, no pulsar-black hole (PSR-BH) binary has been found to date. gap 0.92 0.05 0.03 asserted 1.00
s2 Clues as to where such systems might exist are therefore highly desirable. gap 0.61 0.04 0.02 asserted 0.78
s3 We show that if the central parsec around Sgr A* harbors a cluster of ~25,000 stellar BHs (as predicted by mass segregation arguments) and if it is also rich in recycled pulsar binaries (by analogy with globular clusters), then 3-body exchange interactions should produce PSR-BHs in the Galactic center. contribution 0.85 0.74 0.60 asserted 0.71
s4 Simple estimates of the formation rate and survival time of these binaries suggest that a few PSR-BHs should be present in the central parsec today. result 0.97 0.76 0.24 hedged possibility 0.96
s5 The proposed formation mechanism makes unique predictions for the PSR-BH properties: 1) the binary would reside within ~1 pc of Sgr A*; 2) the pulsar would be recycled, with a period of ~1 to a few tens of milliseconds, and a low magnetic field B<~10^10 G; 3) the binary would have high eccentricity, e~0.8, but with a large scatter; and 4) the binary would be relatively wide, with semi-major axis a_b~0.1 - >~3 AU. result 0.73 0.63 0.22 asserted 0.94
s6 The potential discovery of a PSR-BH binary therefore provides a strong motivation for deep, high-frequency radio searches for recycled pulsars toward the Galactic center. future work 0.93 0.08 0.25 asserted 0.78

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: theoretical result 0.93 · evidence from argument 0.96.

What was examined, and what was not

sources read
  • arXiv listing abstract v2
not examined
  • full text
  • figures and tables
  • references and citing sentences
  • relations to other papers
levels run
  • P abstract
not run
  • S sections
  • T body sentences
  • C citations
  • R cross-paper relations

Every quoted sentence on this record is the authors'. Every label is from Pith's closed vocabulary, with the probability shown beside it. Every number in the measurements table is the authors', checked by code. Record as JSON

The paper
Original abstract

Binaries consisting of a pulsar and a black hole (BH) are a holy grail of astrophysics, both for their significance for stellar evolution and for their potential application as probes of strong gravity. In spite of extensive surveys of our Galaxy and its system of globular clusters, no pulsar-black hole (PSR-BH) binary has been found to date. Clues as to where such systems might exist are therefore highly desirable. We show that if the central parsec around Sgr A* harbors a cluster of ~25,000 stellar BHs (as predicted by mass segregation arguments) and if it is also rich in recycled pulsar binaries (by analogy with globular clusters), then 3-body exchange interactions should produce PSR-BHs in the Galactic center. Simple estimates of the formation rate and survival time of these binaries suggest that a few PSR-BHs should be present in the central parsec today. The proposed formation mechanism makes unique predictions for the PSR-BH properties: 1) the binary would reside within ~1 pc of Sgr A*; 2) the pulsar would be recycled, with a period of ~1 to a few tens of milliseconds, and a low magnetic field B<~10^10 G; 3) the binary would have high eccentricity, e~0.8, but with a large scatter; and 4) the binary would be relatively wide, with semi-major axis a_b~0.1 - >~3 AU. The potential discovery of a PSR-BH binary therefore provides a strong motivation for deep, high-frequency radio searches for recycled pulsars toward the Galactic center.

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References
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8 arXiv papers cite this in 13 sentences

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

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