The Formation of Black Holes in Non-interacting, Isolated Binaries. Gaia Black Holes as Calibrators of Stellar Winds From Massive Stars

Abstract

Context. The black holes discovered using Gaia, especially Gaia BH1 and BH2, have low mass companions of solar-like metallicity in wide orbits. For standard isolated binary evolution formation channels including interactions such an extreme mass ratio is unexpected; especially in orbits of hundreds to thousands of days. Aims. Here, we investigate a non-interacting formation path for isolated binaries to explain the formation of Gaia BH1 and BH2. Methods. We use single star models computed with MESA to constrain the main characteristics of possible progenitors of long-period black hole binaries like Gaia BH1 and BH2. Then, we incorporate these model grids into the binary population synthesis code POSYDON, to explore whether the formation of the observed binaries at solar metallicity is indeed possible. Results. We find that winds of massive stars ($\gtrsim 80M_{\odot }$), especially during the Wolf-Rayet phase, tend to cause a plateau in the initial stellar mass to final black hole mass relation (at about $13M_{\odot }$ in our default wind prescription). However, stellar winds at earlier evolutionary phases are also important at high metallicity, as they prevent the most massive stars from expanding ($<100R_{\odot }$) and filling their Roche lobe. Consequently, the strength of the applied winds affects the range of the final black hole masses in non-interacting binaries, making it possible to form systems similar to Gaia BH1 and BH2. Conclusions. We deduce that wide binaries with a black hole and a low mass companion can form at high metallicity without binary interactions. There could be hundreds of such systems in the Milky Way. The mass of the black hole in binaries evolved through the non-interacting channel can potentially provide insights into the wind strength during the progenitors evolution.

8+4 pages, 6+6 figures, resubmitted to A&A

References in corpus (24)

• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA)
• X-ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Pulsating Variable Stars, Rotation, Convective Boundaries, and Energy Conservation
• The evolution of runaway stellar collision products
• A Sun-like star orbiting a black hole
• A red giant orbiting a black hole
• POSYDON: A General-Purpose Population Synthesis Code with Detailed Binary-Evolution Simulations
• The Origin of Black Hole Spin in Galactic Low-Mass X-ray Binaries
• Discovery of a dormant 33 solar-mass black hole in pre-release Gaia astrometry
• Towards a Realistic Explosion Landscape for Binary Population Synthesis
• A non-interacting Galactic black hole candidate in a binary system with a main-sequence star
• Revealing black holes with Gaia
• Hunting Black Holes with Gaia
• Search for a Black Hole Binary in Gaia DR3 Astrometric Binary Stars with Spectroscopic Data
• Gaia May Detect Hundreds of Well-characterised Stellar Black Holes
• A potential mass-gap black hole in a wide binary with a circular orbit
• Dynamical formation of Gaia BH3 in the progenitor globular cluster of the ED-2 stream
• The 33 M${}_{\odot }$ black hole Gaia BH3 is part of the disrupted ED-2 star cluster
• Evolution of massive stars with new hydrodynamic wind models
• The boring history of Gaia BH3 from isolated binary evolution
• A Triple Scenario for the Formation of Wide Black Hole Binaries Such As Gaia BH1
• Gaia predicted brown dwarf detection rates around FGK stars in astrometry, radial velocity, and photometric transits
• Gaia BH1 and BH2 -- evolutionary models with overshooting of the black hole progenitors within the present-day binary separation
• The Maximum Black Hole Mass at Solar Metallicity

Cited by in corpus (5)

• X-ray emission from helium star+black hole binaries as probes of tidally induced spin-up of second-born black holes
• A possible formation scenario of the Gaia ID 3425577610762832384: inner binary merger inside a triple common envelope
• Expect the unexpected: augmented mixture models for black-hole-population studies
• Revisiting the Evolutionary Status of Massive Stars at the central parsec of the Milky Way
• Where are Gaia's small black holes?