Binary parameters from astrometric and spectroscopic errors – candidate hierarchical triples and massive dark companions in Gaia DR3

Abstract

ABSTRACT We show how astrometric and spectroscopic errors introduced by an unresolved binary system can be combined to give estimates of the binary period and mass ratio. This can be performed analytically if we assume we see one or more full orbits over our observational baseline, or numerically for all other cases. We apply this method to Gaia DR3 data, combining the most recent astrometric and spectroscopic data. We compare inferred periods and mass ratios calculated using our method with orbital parameters measured for non-single stars in Gaia DR3 and find good agreement. Finally, we use this method to search the subset of the Gaia DR3 RVS data set with rv_method_used = 1 for compact object candidates. We select sources with significant astrometric and spectroscopic errors (RUWEast > 1.25 and RUWEspec > 2), large inferred mass ratios, and large inferred companion masses (q > 1 and m2 > 3M⊙) giving a catalogue of 4641 candidate hierarchical triples and Main Sequence + Compact Object pairs. We apply more stringent cuts, and impose low levels of photometric variability to remove likely triples (RUWEphot < 2), producing a gold sample of 45 candidates.