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

Kavli Affiliate: Erin Kara

| First 5 Authors: Edward Nathan, Adam Ingram, James F. Steiner, Ole König, Thomas Dauser

| Summary:

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 $12pm2~text{M}_odot$ ($1sigma$
credible interval). We are then able to revise a previous disc continuum
fitting estimate of black hole spin $a_*$ (previously relying on a population
mass distribution) using our new mass constraint, finding $a_*=0.47pm0.10$.
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.

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