Hunting Black Holes with Gaia

Abstract

We predict the number of black holes with stellar companions that are potentially detectable with Gaia astrometry over the course of its five-year mission. Our model estimates that nearly 2$\times$10${}^5$ astrometric binaries hosting black holes and stellar companions brighter than Gaia's detection threshold, G $\sim$ 20, should be discovered with 5$\sigma$ sensitivity. Among these detectable binaries, systems with longer orbital periods are favored, and black hole and stellar companion masses in the range M${}_{BH}\sim$ 6-10 M${}_{\odot }$ and M${}_{\ast }\sim$ 1-2 M${}_{\odot }$, respectively, are expected to dominate.

6 pages, 2 figures; to be published in MNRAS

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