Mass Measurements of Stellar and Intermediate-Mass Black Holes

Casares, J.; Jonker, P. G.
Bibliographical reference

Space Science Reviews, Volume 183, Issue 1-4, pp. 223-252

Advertised on:
9
2014
Number of authors
2
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
212
Refereed citations
184
Description
We discuss the method, and potential systematic effects therein, used for measuring the mass of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries. We restrict our discussion to the method that relies on the validity of Kepler's laws; we refer to this method as the dynamical method. We briefly discuss the implications of the mass distribution of stellar-mass black holes and provide an outlook for future measurements. Further, we investigate the evidence for the existence of intermediate-mass black holes i.e. black holes with masses above 100 M⊙, the limit to the black hole mass that can be produced by stellar evolution in the current Universe.