Proof of principle X-ray reflection mass measurement of the black hole in H1743-322

Abstract

The black hole X-ray binary H1743-322 lies in a region of the Galaxy with high extinction, and therefore it has not been possible to make a dynamical mass measurement. In this paper we make use of a recent model which uses the X-ray reflection spectrum to constrain the ratio of the black hole mass to the source distance. By folding in a reported distance measurement, we are able to estimate the mass of the black hole to be $12\pm 2{\text{M}}_{\odot }$ ($1\ddot{I}ƒ$ credible interval). We are then able to revise a previous disc continuum fitting estimate of black hole spin $a_{\ast }$ (previously relying on a population mass distribution) using our new mass constraint, finding $a_{\ast }=0.47\pm 0.10$. This work is a proof of principle demonstration of the method, showing it can be used to find the mass of black holes in X-ray binaries.

13 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS