| Abstract : | Theoretical studies from several groups including ours have predicted that the unprecedented astrometric data from the Gaia satellite should help discover thousands of compact object binaries in detached orbits, about a hundred of which are expected to be black holes. True to this prediction, several tens of candidate compact object binaries have already been identified from Gaia's third data release. This number is expected to increase significantly in future data releases as well as ongoing analysis of the current data. This group of compact object binaries, especially those containing black holes and neutron stars, are complementary to the more traditional interacting ones detected via X-ray, radio, or gravitational waves. In my presentation, I will describe how several properties, traditionally not directly measurable, of these compact objects can be constrained with Gaia's observations only. Furthermore, I will describe how we can finally put meaningful constraints on highly uncertain supernova physics with this (potentially) large number of detected black holes and neutron stars with well-constrained properties. |
