Searching for Hidden Black Holes in APOGEE-2

Volume 52 number 2 (2024)

David Palmore: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, and Texas Tech University, 2500 Broadway, Lubbock, TX 79409; dpalmo2@lsu.edu
Thomas J. Maccarone: Texas Tech University, 2500 Broadway, Lubbock, TX 79409; thomas.maccarone@ttu.edu
Rachael Beaton: Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Steven Muller Building, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218; Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, and Carnegie Observatories, Pasadena, CA 91101; and The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101; rbeaton@stsci.edu
Michael Eracleous: Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802; mce@astro.psu.edu
Arash Bahramian: Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley WA 6102, Australia; arash.bahramian@curtin.edu.au
Carlos Badenes: The University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; badenes@pitt.edu
Tharindu Jayasinghe: The Ohio State University, 281 West Lane Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210; tjayasinghe@berkeley.edu

Abstract

The Milky Way is believed to contain thousands of stellar mass black hole X-ray binaries, but only about 50 candidates are known. We describe our examination of the APOGEE-2 data for X-ray sources in the Swift Galactic Bulge Survey region. The object HD 158902 stood out as warranting further investigation, because it shows a radial velocity difference between published data and APOGEE-2, as well as past X-ray detections. We discuss whether this is due to binary motions or other causes.