The First Low-mass Black Hole X-Ray Binary Identified in Quiescence Outside of a Globular Cluster

Abstract

The observed relation between the X-ray and radio properties of low-luminosity accreting black holes (BHs) has enabled the identification of multiple candidate black hole X-ray binaries (BHXBs) in globular clusters (GCs). Here, we report an identification of the radio source VLA J213002.08+120904 (aka M15 S2), recently reported in Kirsten et al., as a BHXB candidate. They showed that the parallax of this flat-spectrum variable radio source indicates a {2.2}_-0.3^+0.5 kpc distance, which identifies it as lying in the foreground of the GC M15. We determine the radio characteristics of this source and place a deep limit on the X-ray luminosity of ∼4 × 10²⁹ erg s^-1. Furthermore, we astrometrically identify a faint red stellar counterpart in archival Hubble images with colors consistent with a foreground star; at 2.2 kpc, its inferred mass is 0.1-0.2 M _⊙. We rule out that this object is a pulsar, neutron star X-ray binary, cataclysmic variable, or planetary nebula, concluding that VLA J213002.08+120904 is the first accreting BHXB candidate discovered in quiescence outside of a GC. Given the relatively small area over which parallax studies of radio sources have been performed, this discovery suggests a much larger population of quiescent BHXBs in our Galaxy, 2.6 × 10⁴-1.7 × 10⁸ BHXBs at 3σ confidence, than has been previously estimated (∼10²-10⁴) through population synthesis.