![Fig. 1: Top panel: orbital phase shift at the time of the inferior conjunction (orbital phase 0), Tn, of the secondary star in the BHXB XTE J1118+480 versus the orbital cycle number, n, folded on the best-fit parabolic fit. The error bars give the observa Fig. 1: Top panel: orbital phase shift at the time of the inferior conjunction (orbital phase 0), Tn, of the secondary star in the BHXB XTE J1118+480 versus the orbital cycle number, n, folded on the best-fit parabolic fit. The error bars give the observa](/sites/default/files/styles/crop_square_2_2_to_320px/public/images/news/resultados125_134.jpg?itok=-T3J4dFn)
We present new 10.4 m-GTC/OSIRIS spectroscopic observations of the black hole X-ray binary XTE J1118+480 that confirm the orbital period decay at (dP/dt) = −1.90 ± 0.57 ms yr −1. This corresponds to a period change of −0.88 ± 0.27 μs per orbital cycle. We have also collected observations of the black hole X-ray binary A0620–00 to derive an orbital period derivative of (dP/dt)= −0.60 ± 0.08 ms yr −1 (−0.53 ± 0.07 μs/cycle). Angular momentum losses due to gravitational radiation are unable to explain these large orbital decays in these two short- period black hole binaries. The orbital period
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