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A parallax distance to the microquasar GRS 1915+105 and a revised estimate of its black hole mass
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Reid, M. J., McClintock, J. E., Steiner, J. F., Steeghs, D., Remillard, R. A., Dhawan, V. and Narayan, R. (2014) A parallax distance to the microquasar GRS 1915+105 and a revised estimate of its black hole mass. Astrophysical Journal, Volume 796 (Number 1). p. 2. Article number 2. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/796/1/2 ISSN 0004-637X.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/796/1/2
Abstract
Using the Very Long Baseline Array, we have measured a trigonometric parallax for the microquasar GRS 1915+105, which contains a black hole and a K-giant companion. This yields a direct distance estimate of $8.6^{+2.0}_{{-}1.6}$ kpc and a revised estimate for the mass of the black hole of $12.4^{+2.0}_{-1.8}$ M ☉. GRS 1915+105 is at about the same distance as some H II regions and water masers associated with high-mass star formation in the Sagittarius spiral arm of the Galaxy. The absolute proper motion of GRS 1915+105 is –3.19 ± 0.03 mas yr–1 and –6.24 ± 0.05 mas yr–1 toward the east and north, respectively, which corresponds to a modest peculiar speed of 22 ± 24 km s–1 at the parallax distance, suggesting that the binary did not receive a large velocity kick when the black hole formed. On one observational epoch, GRS 1915+105 displayed superluminal motion along the direction of its approaching jet. Considering previous observations of jet motions, the jet in GRS 1915+105 can be modeled with a jet inclination to the line of sight of 60° ± 5° and a variable flow speed between 0.65c and 0.81c, which possibly indicates deceleration of the jet at distances from the black hole gsim 2000 AU. Finally, using our measurements of distance and estimates of black hole mass and inclination, we provisionally confirm our earlier result that the black hole is spinning very rapidly.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Physics | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Astrophysical Journal | ||||||||
Publisher: | IOP Publishing | ||||||||
ISSN: | 0004-637X | ||||||||
Official Date: | 29 October 2014 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Volume 796 | ||||||||
Number: | Number 1 | ||||||||
Page Range: | p. 2 | ||||||||
Article Number: | Article number 2 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1088/0004-637X/796/1/2 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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