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A Study of Mass Gap Black Hole Candidates by the Downing Laboratory at ASDRP

Writer's picture: ASDRP AdminASDRP Admin

ASDRP’s very own Robert Downing, Principal Investigator, and his student researchers have completed a significant piece of research and have published their findings online via arXiv titled.  




Authors 

Ajla Trumic (UC Berkeley), Aneya Sobalkar (California High School); Efe Tandırlı (Eindhoven Technical University Netherlands); Nishka Yadav (Monta Vista High School); Isabelle Culinco (Campolindo High School); Shriya Nedumaran (Leigh High School); Kaylee Liu (Mission San Jose High School); Phiet Tran (Santa Clara High School); Aadhya Pai (Amador Valley High School); Robert Downing (Aspiring Scholars Directed Research Program).



Credit: Ivan Markin, Tim Dietrich (University of Potsdam), Harald Paul Pfeiffer, Alessandra Buonanno (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics)


Snippet from the Introduction 

“The discovery of neutron stars and black holes (BHs) in the Milky Way galaxy is essential to understanding the end states of stellar evolution. Current mass measurements of neutron stars and black holes are predominantly derived from X-ray detection methodology2. However, only a small percentage of these compact objects are detectable through X-ray methodologies, so these interacting systems are not representative of the total population. To gain a more accurate understanding of how these massive objects form, a more complete census is required. Research into non-interacting binary systems has been crucial in identifying massive companions in the Milky Way galaxy that are indetectable directly by their electromagnetic signatures. The characterization of galactic BH binaries would help bridge the mass gap, defined by the ambiguity between the most massive neutron stars and the least massive black holes in the range of 3-5 M⊙5……


…..The purpose of this study is to evaluate Rowan and Jayasinghe’s technique on single-lined spectroscopic binaries (SB1s) that could contain black holes that fit in the mass gap range, misidentified BHs, and candidates from our research.”


Read the entire paper here

Potential Stars Downing Group

Downing Group Image for PHOEBE

Future Plans for Continued Research on Black Holes at ASDRP

“In the future, we plan on expanding our research methodology to new datasets, such as those from the Gaia Early Focused Product Release as well as radial velocity and flux time series data for all stars. Future implementation of MCMC could include expanding PHOEBE’s parameters to better model the system.”


Read the entire paper here



Credit: Cornell University areXiv








What is arXiv?

“arXiv is a curated research-sharing platform open to anyone. As a pioneer in digital open access, arXiv.org now hosts more than two million scholarly articles in eight subject areas, curated by our strong community of volunteer moderators” 








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