Related papers: The Eclipsing Black Hole X-ray Binary M33 X-7: Und…

The recent identification of a candidate very massive 70 M(Sun) black hole is at odds with our current understanding of stellar winds and pair-instability supernovae. We investigate alternate explanations for this system by searching the…

Recent detections of gravitational waves from merging binary black holes opened new possibilities to study the evolution of massive stars and black hole formation. In particular, stellar evolution models may be constrained on the basis of…

A $33\,M_\odot$ black hole (BH) was recently discovered in an 11.6-year binary only 590 pc from the Sun. The system, Gaia BH3, contains a $0.8\,M_\odot$ low-metallicity giant ($\rm [M/H]=-2.2$) that is a member of the ED-2 stellar stream.…

The formation and evolution of binary black holes (BH) is studied using the modern evolutionary scenario for very massive stars with high mass loss (Vanbeveren et al. 1998). Main sequence stars with masses $M>35 M_\odot$ are assumed to form…

We present optical spectroscopic measurements of the eclipsing High Mass X-ray Binary XMMU J013236.7+303228 in M33. Based on spectra taken at multiple epochs of the 1.73d binary orbital period we determine physical as well as orbital…

Stellar-mass black holes are the final remnants of stars born with more than 15 solar masses. Billions are expected to reside in the Local Group, yet only few are known, mostly detected through X-rays emitted as they accrete material from a…

In this note we suggest that high-mass black holes; i.e., black holes of several solar masses, can be formed in binaries with low-mass main-sequence companions, provided that the hydrogen envelope of the massive star is removed in common…

We investigate the cosmic evolution of the black hole (BH) mass -- bulge luminosity relation using a sample of 52 active galaxies at $z \sim 0.36$ and $z \sim 0.57$ in the BH mass range of $10^{7.4-9.1} M_{\odot}$. By consistently applying…

The analysis of INTEGRAL observations (2003-2008) of superaccreting galactic microquasar SS433 at precessional phases with the maximum disk opening angle is carried out. The shape and width of the primary X-ray eclipse is found to be…

Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) with Lx > 10^{39} ergs/s have been discovered in great numbers in external galaxies with ROSAT, Chandra, and XMM. The central question regarding this important class of sources is whether they represent an…

We test the physical model of the relativistic jets in the galactic X-ray binary SS 433 proposed in our previous paper using additional observations from the Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer. These observations sample…

Stellar models indicate that the core compactness of a star, which is a common proxy for its explodability in a supernova, does not increase monotonically with the star's mass. Rather, the core compactness dips sharply over a range of…

The state of the searches for isolated black holes, non-accreting black holes in binary systems and, finally, the accreting black holes in the X-ray binaries is presented. The third category is, by far, the most important source of…

We show that a common evolutionary history can produce the black hole binaries in the Galaxy in which the black holes have masses of ~ 5-10 M_sun. In with low-mass, <~ 2.5 M_sun, ZAMS (zero age main sequence) companions, the latter remain…

We investigate systematically whether accreting black hole systems are likely to reach global alignment of the black hole spin and its accretion disc with the binary plane. In low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) there is only a modest tendency…

We describe the discovery of a solar neighborhood (d=468 pc) binary system with a main-sequence sunlike star and a massive non-interacting black hole candidate. The spectral energy distribution (SED) of the visible star is described by a…

We analyze the dynamical evolution of binary stars that interact with a static background of single stars in the environment of a massive black hole (MBH). All stars are considered to be single mass, Newtonian point particles. We follow the…

We present a catalog of 2,990 extended sources in a 1deg x1deg area centered on M33 using the MegaCam camera on the 3.6m Canada-France-Hawaii telescope (CFHT). The catalog includes 599 new candidate stellar clusters, 204 previously…

Beginning from massive binaries in the Galaxy we evolve black-hole, neutron-star binaries and binary neutron stars, such as the Hulse-Taylor system PSR 1913+16. The new point in our evolution is a quantitative calculation of the accretion…

Exoplanet transit and Doppler surveys discover many binary stars during their operation that can be used to conduct a variety of ancillary science. Specifically, eclipsing binary stars can be used to study the stellar mass-radius…