GS 2000+25: The Least Luminous Black Hole X-ray Binary


Abstract in English

Little is known about the properties of the accretion flows and jets of the lowest-luminosity quiescent black holes. We report new, strictly simultaneous radio and X-ray observations of the nearby stellar-mass black hole X-ray binary GS 2000+25 in its quiescent state. In deep Chandra observations we detect the system at a faint X-ray luminosity of $L_X = 1.1^{+1.0}_{-0.7} times 10^{30},(d/2 {rm ,, kpc})^2$ erg s$^{-1}$ (1-10 keV). This is the lowest X-ray luminosity yet observed for a quiescent black hole X-ray binary, corresponding to an Eddington ratio $L_X/L_{rm Edd} sim 10^{-9}$. In 15 hours of observations with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, no radio continuum emission is detected to a $3sigma$ limit of $< 2.8 mu$Jy at 6 GHz. Including GS 2000+25, four quiescent stellar-mass black holes with $L_X < 10^{32}$ erg s$^{-1}$ have deep simultaneous radio and X-ray observations and known distances. These sources all have radio to X-ray luminosity ratios generally consistent with, but slightly lower than, the low state radio/X-ray correlation for stellar-mass black holes with $L_X > 10^{32}$ erg s$^{-1}$. Observations of these sources tax the limits of our current X-ray and radio facilities, and new routes to black hole discovery are needed to study the lowest-luminosity black holes.

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