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Constraining Wind-Driven Accretion Onto Gaia BH3 With Chandra
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Submitted 11 Jun 2024
abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review
The authors' main claim Because of the inferred low rates, accretion did not significantly contribute to black hole growth over the system's lifetime.
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The abstract, sentence by sentence
Gaia BH3 is the most massive known stellar-origin black hole in the Milky Way, with a mass $M_\bullet \approx 33 \, \rm M_\odot$. Detected from Gaia's astrometry, this black hole is in the mass range of those observed via gravitational waves, whose nature is still highly debated. Hosted in a binary system with a companion giant star that is too far away for Roche-lobe mass transfer, this black hole could nonetheless accrete at low levels due to wind-driven mass-loss from its companion star, thus accreting in advection-dominated accretion flow, or ADAF, mode. Using stellar wind models, we constrain its Eddington ratio in the range $10^{-9} < f_{\rm Edd} < 10^{-7}$, corresponding to radiative efficiencies $5\times10^{-5} < \epsilon < 10^{-3}$, compatible with radiatively inefficient accretion modes. Chandra ACIS-S observed this object and obtained the most sensitive upper bound of its [2-10] keV flux: $F_X < 3.25 \times 10^{-15} \, \rm erg \, s^{-1} \, cm^{-2}$ at $90\%$ confidence level corresponding to $L_{[2-10]}< 2.10 \times 10^{29} \, \rm erg \, s^{-1}$. Using ADAF emission models, we constrained its accretion rate to $f_{\rm Edd}< 4.91 \times 10^{-7}$ at the apastron, in agreement with our theoretical estimate. At the periastron, we expect fluxes $\sim 50$ times larger. Because of the inferred low rates, accretion did not significantly contribute to black hole growth over the system's lifetime. Detecting the electromagnetic emission from Gaia BH3 will be fundamental to informing stellar wind and accretion disk models.
background contribution method result interpretation main claim
| # | sentence | role | the authors' own work | states the main conclusion | strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s0 | Gaia BH3 is the most massive known stellar-origin black hole in the Milky Way, with a mass $M_\bullet \approx 33 \, \rm M_\odot$. | background 0.99 | 0.13 | 0.03 | asserted 1.00 |
| s1 | Detected from Gaia's astrometry, this black hole is in the mass range of those observed via gravitational waves, whose nature is still highly debated. | background 0.98 | 0.10 | 0.03 | asserted 0.96 |
| s2 | Hosted in a binary system with a companion giant star that is too far away for Roche-lobe mass transfer, this black hole could nonetheless accrete at low levels due to wind-driven mass-loss from its companion star, thus accreting in advection-dominated accretion flow, or ADAF, mode. | background 0.96 | 0.11 | 0.07 | hedged possibility 1.00 |
| s3 | Using stellar wind models, we constrain its Eddington ratio in the range $10^{-9} < f_{\rm Edd} < 10^{-7}$, corresponding to radiative efficiencies $5\times10^{-5} < \epsilon < 10^{-3}$, compatible with radiatively inefficient accretion modes. | result 0.95 | 0.88 | 0.24 | asserted 0.97 |
| s4 | Chandra ACIS-S observed this object and obtained the most sensitive upper bound of its [2-10] keV flux: $F_X < 3.25 \times 10^{-15} \, \rm erg \, s^{-1} \, cm^{-2}$ at $90\%$ confidence level corresponding to $L_{[2-10]}< 2.10 \times 10^{29} \, \rm erg \, s^{-1}$. | result 0.98 | 0.94 | 0.14 | asserted 1.00 |
| s5 | Using ADAF emission models, we constrained its accretion rate to $f_{\rm Edd}< 4.91 \times 10^{-7}$ at the apastron, in agreement with our theoretical estimate. | result 0.98 | 0.94 | 0.19 | asserted 1.00 |
| s6 | At the periastron, we expect fluxes $\sim 50$ times larger. | result 0.79 | 0.71 | 0.04 | hedged possibility 0.47 |
| s7 | Because of the inferred low rates, accretion did not significantly contribute to black hole growth over the system's lifetime. | interpretation 0.98 | 0.76 | 0.40 | asserted 0.99 |
| s8 | Detecting the electromagnetic emission from Gaia BH3 will be fundamental to informing stellar wind and accretion disk models. | future work 0.82 | 0.08 | 0.11 | asserted 0.93 |
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Original abstract
Gaia BH3 is the most massive known stellar-origin black hole in the Milky Way, with a mass $M_\bullet \approx 33 \, \rm M_\odot$. Detected from Gaia's astrometry, this black hole is in the mass range of those observed via gravitational waves, whose nature is still highly debated. Hosted in a binary system with a companion giant star that is too far away for Roche-lobe mass transfer, this black hole could nonetheless accrete at low levels due to wind-driven mass-loss from its companion star, thus accreting in advection-dominated accretion flow, or ADAF, mode. Using stellar wind models, we constrain its Eddington ratio in the range $10^{-9} < f_{\rm Edd} < 10^{-7}$, corresponding to radiative efficiencies $5\times10^{-5} < \epsilon < 10^{-3}$, compatible with radiatively inefficient accretion modes. Chandra ACIS-S observed this object and obtained the most sensitive upper bound of its [2-10] keV flux: $F_X < 3.25 \times 10^{-15} \, \rm erg \, s^{-1} \, cm^{-2}$ at $90\%$ confidence level corresponding to $L_{[2-10]}< 2.10 \times 10^{29} \, \rm erg \, s^{-1}$. Using ADAF emission models, we constrained its accretion rate to $f_{\rm Edd}< 4.91 \times 10^{-7}$ at the apastron, in agreement with our theoretical estimate. At the periastron, we expect fluxes $\sim 50$ times larger. Because of the inferred low rates, accretion did not significantly contribute to black hole growth over the system's lifetime. Detecting the electromagnetic emission from Gaia BH3 will be fundamental to informing stellar wind and accretion disk models.
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This hypothesis is potentially supported by Gaia BH3's association with the ED-2 stream, a possible remnant of a globular cluster [ref] .
The 33 M$_\odot$ black hole Gaia BH3 is part of the disrupted ED-2 star cluster · Introduction · 0.98
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