Description
We report the results of spectroscopic and photometric observations of the emission-line object AS 386. For the first time we found that it exhibits the B[e] phenomenon and fits the definition of an FS CMa type object. The optical spectrum shows the presence of a B-type star with the following properties: Teff=11000+/-500K, log L/L_{sun}_=3.7+/-0.3, a mass of 7+/-1M_{sun}_, and a distance D=2.4+/-0.3kpc from the Sun. We detected regular radial velocity variations of both absorption and emission lines with the following orbital parameters: Porb=131.27+/-0.09 days, semiamplitude K1=51.7+/-3.0km/s, systemic radial velocity {gamma}=-31.8+/-2.6km/s, and a mass function of f(m)=1.9+/-0.3M_{sun}_. AS 386 exhibits irregular variations of the optical brightness (V=10.92+/-0.05mag), while the near-IR brightness varies up to ~0.3mag following the spectroscopic period. We explain this behavior by a variable illumination of the dusty disk inner rim by the B-type component. Doppler tomography based on the orbital variations of emission-line profiles shows that the material is distributed near the B-type component and in a circumbinary disk. We conclude that the system has undergone a strong mass transfer that created the circumstellar material and increased the B-type component mass. The absence of any traces of a secondary component, whose mass should be >=7M_{sun}_, suggests that it is most likely a black hole.
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