Black holes and neutron stars are the final products of the collapsed cores of massive stars.
We now detect neutron stars and black holes merging via the detection of gravitational waves.
What is the mass spectrum of these objects?
Is their formation associated with a kick?
How do pairs of compact objects form?
I use multiwavelength, multi epoch spectroscopy to hunt for compact objects in the Local Universe.
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I am leading an ESO Large Programme dedicated to study these questions in the Small Magellanic Cloud: Check out the BLOeM page.
Notable relevant publications:
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Shenar et al. 2022, A&A, 665, 148: "Characterization of hidden companions in 51 single-lined spectroscopic binaries"
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Janssens, Shenar et al. 2022, A&A, 658, 129: "Uncovering astrometric black holes with Gaia"
An artist's impression of VFTS 243, the first unambiguous dormant stellar-mass black hole detected outside our Galaxy
Shenar et al. 2022, Nature Astronomy
Image credit: ESO/L. Calçada