Evidence of a Massive Black Hole Companion in the Massive Eclipsing Binary V Puppis

QIAN S.-B.; LIAO W.-P.; FERNÁNDEZ LAJÚS E.

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL

University of Chicago Press

Lugar: Chicago, USA; Año: 2008 vol. 687 p. 466 - 470

0004-637X

Up to now, most stellar-mass black holes were discovered in X-ray emittingbinaries, in which the black holes are formed through a common-envelope evolution. Here we give evidence for the presence of a massive black hole candidate asa tertiary companion in the massive eclipsing binary V Puppis. We found thatthe orbital period of this short-period binary (P=1.45 days) shows a periodicvariation while it undergoes a long-term increase. The cyclic period oscillationcan be interpreted by the light-travel time effect via the presence of a third bodywith a mass no less than 10.4 solar mass. However, no spectral lines of the thirdbody were discovered indicating that it is a massive black hole candidate. Theblack hole candidate may correspond to the weak X-ray source close to V Puppisdiscovered by Uhuru, Copernicus, and ROSAT satellites produced by accretingmaterials from the massive binary via stellar wind. The circumstellar matterwith many heavy elements around this binary may be formed by the supernovaexplosion of the progenitor of the massive black hole. All of the observationssuggest that a massive black hole is orbiting the massive close binary V Pup-pis with a period of 5.47 years. Meanwhile, we found the central close binaryis undergoing slow mass transfer from the secondary to the primary star on anuclear time scale of the secondary component, revealing that the system haspassed through a rapid mass-transfer stage.