A black hole detected in the young massive LMC cluster NGC 1850

We report on the detection of a black hole (NGC 1850 BH1) in the similar to 100-Myr-old massive cluster NGC 1850 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is in a binary system with a main-sequence turn-off star (4.9 +/- 0.4 M-circle dot), which is starting to fill its Roche lobe and is becoming distorted. Using 17 epochs of Very Large Telescope/Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer observations, we detected radial velocity variations exceeding 300 km s(-1) associated with the target star, linked to the ellipsoidal variations measured by the fourth phase of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment in the optical bands. Under the assumption of a semidetached system, the simultaneous modelling of radial velocity and light curves constrains the orbital inclination of the binary to 38 degrees +/- 2 degrees, resulting in a true mass of the unseen companion of 11.1(-2.4)(+2.1) M-circle dot. This represents the first direct dynamical detection of a black hole in a young massive cluster, opening up the possibility of studying the initial mass function and the early dynamical evolution of such compact objects in high-density environments.

Automated summary

We report the first direct detection of a black hole in a young massive cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The black hole is in a binary system with a main-sequence turn-off star and its mass and orbital inclination have been determined through observations. This discovery opens up possibilities for studying the early dynamical evolution of compact objects in high-density environments.