van den Heuvel & Tauris argue that if the red giant star in the system 2MASS J05215658+4359220 has a mass of 1 solar mass (M⊙), then its unseen companion could be a binary composed of two 0.9 M⊙ stars, making a triple system. We contend that the existing data are most consistent with a giant of mass 3.2−1.0+1.0 M⊙, implying a black hole companion of 3.3−0.7+2.8 M⊙.
@article{arxiv.2005.07653,
title = {Response to Comment on "A Non-Interacting Low-Mass Black Hole -- Giant Star Binary System"},
author = {Todd A. Thompson and Christopher S. Kochanek and Krzysztof Z. Stanek and Carles Badenes and Tharindu Jayasinghe and Jamie Tayar and Jennifer A. Johnson and Thomas W. -S. Holoien and Katie Auchettl and Kevin Covey},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2005.07653},
year = {2020}
}