A Black Hole in BG Geminorum?

We propose to observe the Galactic black hole candidate BG Gem for 10 ks with EPIC-pn onboard XMM-Newton. A detection of this system at a luminosity greater than 10^31 erg s^-1 would significantly bolster the case for the presence of a stellar mass black hole primary. If confirmed, then BG Gem would be the black hole binary with the longest orbital period (by a factor of 3), in addition to being the only eclipsing Galactic black hole binary system. The discovery of a nearby eclipsing quiescent black hole would facilitate a unique opportunity to study the physics of black hole accretion at low luminosity (L_x ~ 10^-7 L_Edd).