Formation of a Black Hole in the Dark
Preprint
- 12 May 2003
Abstract
We show that the black hole in the x-ray binary Cygnus X-1 was formed in situ and did not receive an energetic trigger from a nearby supernova. The progenitor of the black hole had an initial mass greater than 40 solar masses and during the collapse to form the ~10 solar mass black hole of Cygnus X-1, the upper limit for the mass that could have been suddenly ejected is ~1 solar mass, much less than the mass ejected in a supernova. The observations suggest that high-mass stellar black holes may form promptly, when massive stars disappear silently.Keywords
All Related Versions
- Version 1, 2003-05-12, ArXiv
- Published version: Science, 300 (5622), 1119.
This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: