Probing black hole X-ray binaries with the Keck telescopes

The advent of the large effective apertures of the Keck telescopes has resulted in the determination with unprecedented accuracy of the mass functions and mass ratios of faint (R ~ 21 mag) X-ray transients (GS 2000+25, GRO J0422+32, Nova Oph 1977, Nova Vel 1993), as well as constraining the main-sequence companion star parameters and producing images of the accretion disks around the black holes.