A Black Hole Kicked At Birth: MAXI J1305-704

TL;DR

This study investigates the natal kick received by the black hole in the binary system MAXI J1305-704, concluding it likely received a kick of at least 70 km/s during its formation, based on trajectory analysis.

Contribution

It provides the first estimate of the black hole's natal kick in MAXI J1305-704, using trajectory integration and observational data to infer the supernova's impact.

Findings

Black hole in MAXI J1305-704 received a natal kick of at least 70 km/s.

The supernova ejected less than approximately 1 solar mass.

The system's velocity suggests a significant natal kick during black hole formation.

Abstract

When a compact object is formed in a binary, any mass lost during core collapse will impart a kick on the binary's center of mass. Asymmetries in this mass loss or neutrino emission would impart an additional natal kick on the remnant black hole or neutron star, whether it was formed in a binary or in isolation. While it is well established that neutron stars receive natal kicks upon formation, it is unclear whether black holes do as well. Here, we consider the low-mass X-ray binary MAXI J1305-704, which has been reported to have a space velocity $\gtrsim$ 200 km/s. In addition to integrating its trajectory to infer its velocity upon formation of its black hole, we account for recent estimates of its period, black hole mass, mass ratio, and donor effective temperature from photometric and spectroscopic observations. We find that if MAXI J1305-704 formed via isolated binary evolution in the thick Galactic disk, then the supernova that formed its black hole imparted a natal kick of at least 70 km/s while ejecting less than $\simeq 1$ M$_\odot$ with 95% confidence assuming uninformative priors on mass loss and natal kick velocity.