A feasibility study on the photometric detection of quiescent black hole X-ray binaries

Abstract

We investigate the feasibility of detecting quiescent black hole X-ray binaries using optical photometric techniques. To test this we employ a combination of r-band and Halpha filters currently available at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory. Photometric observations of four dynamical black holes (GRO J0422+320, A 0620-00, XTE J1118+480 and XTE J1859+226) at SNR>~35-50, supplemented with near simultaneous spectroscopic data, demonstrate that it is possible to recover the FWHM of the Halpha emission line to better than 10% for targets with a wide range of line EWs and down to magnitude r~22. We further explore the potential of our photometric system to disentangle other populations of compact stars and Halpha emitters. In particular, we show that HAWKs, a survey designed to unveil quiescent black holes, will also provide a detailed census of other Galactic populations, most notably short period (eclipsing) cataclysmic variables, neutron star X-ray binaries and ultra-compact binaries.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 11 pages, 5 figures, 3 Tables. v2 with updated references

References in corpus (19)

• GW170814: A Three-Detector Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Coalescence
• The James Webb Space Telescope
• GW170608: Observation of a 19-solar-mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence
• Initial Performance of the NEOWISE Reactivation Mission
• GW170817, General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations, and the Neutron Star Maximum Mass
• eROSITA Science Book: Mapping the Structure of the Energetic Universe
• Peering into the dark side: magnesium lines establish a massive neutron star in PSR J2215+5135
• LISA verification binaries with updated distances from Gaia Data Release 2
• The Gaia 20 pc white dwarf sample
• On the evolutionary status of short period cataclysmic variables
• The Galactic distribution of X-ray binaries and its implications for compact object formation and natal kicks
• Orbital Period and Outburst Luminosity of Transient Low Mass X-ray Binaries
• A Refined Search for Pulsations in White Dwarf Companions to Millisecond Pulsars
• The Gaia-ESO Survey and CSI 2264: Substructures, disks, and sequential star formation in the young open cluster NGC 2264
• Novel modelling of ultra-compact X-ray binary evolution - stable mass transfer from white dwarfs to neutron stars
• Gaia Reveals Evidence for Merged White Dwarfs
• The Properties of Cataclysmic Variables In Photometric Halpha Surveys
• Hibernating black holes revealed by photometric mass functions
• Candidate Hα emission and absorption line sources in the Galactic Bulge Survey

Cited by in corpus (8)

• The observed mass distribution of Galactic black hole LMXBs is biased against massive black holes
• Mining for Candidates of Galactic Stellar-mass Black Hole Binaries with LAMOST
• Delimiting the black hole mass in the X-ray transient MAXI J1659-152 with H$\alpha$ spectroscopy
• A correlation between Ha trough depth and inclination in quiescent X-ray transients: evidence for a low-mass black hole in GRO J0422+32
• Prospecting Period Measurements with LSST - Low Mass X-ray Binaries as a Test Case
• Estimating the spin of the black hole candidate MAXI J1659-152 with the X-ray continuum-fitting method
• Discovery of faint double-peak Halpha emission in the halo of low redshift galaxies
• Astrometry of variable compact radio sources: A search for Galactic black hole X-ray binaries