VLTI/GRAVITY limit on Gaia BH3 emission Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Kervella P.
  2. Panuzzo P.
  3. Gallenne A.
  4. Merand A.
  5. Arenou F.
  6. Caffau E.,Lacour S.
  7. Mazeh T.
  8. Holl B.
  9. Babusiaux C.
  10. Nardetto N.
  11. Clavel M.,Le Bouquin J.-B.
  12. Segransan D.
  13. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

The recent astrometric discovery of the nearby (590pc), massive (33M_{sun}_) dormant black hole candidate Gaia BH3 offers the possibility to resolve angularly the black hole from its companion star using optical interferometry. We aim at detecting emission in the near-infrared K band from the close-in environment of Gaia BH3 caused by accretion. Gaia BH3 (LS II +14 13) has been observed using the GRAVITY instrument with the four 8-m Unit Telescopes of the VLT Interferometer. We searched for the signature of emission of Gaia BH3 in the interferometric observables using the CANDID, PMOIRED and exoGravity tools. With a separation of 18mas, the Gaia BH3 system is well resolvable angularly by GRAVITY. We did not detect emission from the black hole at a contrast level of {Delta}m=6.8mag with respect to the companion star, that is, f_BH_/f_star_<0.2%. This corresponds to an upper limit on the continuum flux density of f_BH_<1.9*10^-16^W/m^2^/micron in the K band. We also did not detect emission from the black hole in the hydrogen BrGamma line. The non-detection of near-infrared emission from the black hole in Gaia BH3 indicates that its accretion of the giant star wind is presently occurring at most at a very low rate. This is consistent with the limit of f_Edd_<4.9*10^-7^ derived previously on the Eddington ratio for an advection-dominated accretion flow. Deeper observations with GRAVITY may be able to detect the black hole as the companion star approaches periastron around year 2030.

Keywords
  1. multiple-stars
  2. population-ii-stars
  3. interferometry
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2025A&A...695L...1K
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History

2025-02-25T10:35:07Z
Resource record created
2025-02-25T10:35:07Z
Created
2025-03-03T06:11:11Z
Updated

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