Related papers: Hierarchical analysis of gravitational-wave measur…
The coalescence of compact binaries containing neutron stars or black holes is one of the most promising signals for advanced ground-based laser interferometer gravitational-wave detectors, with the first direct detections expected over the…
The relation between the mass and spin of stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) has been proposed to be a smoking gun for the presence of multiple formation channels for compact objects. First-generation black holes (BHs) formed by…
In dense stellar environments, the merger products of binary black hole mergers may undergo additional mergers. These hierarchical mergers are predicted to have higher masses than the first generation of black holes made from stars. The…
Binary black holes (BBHs) can form from the collapsed cores of isolated high-mass binary stars. The masses and spins of these BBHs are determined by the complicated interplay of phenomena such as tides, winds, accretion, common-envelope…
One proposed black hole formation channel involves hierarchical mergers, where black holes form through repeated binary mergers. Previous studies have shown that such black holes follow a near-universal spin distribution centered around…
Binary black hole spin measurements from gravitational wave observations can reveal the binary's evolutionary history. In particular, the spin orientations of the component black holes within the orbital plane, $\phi_1$ and $\phi_2$, can be…
The growing number of binary black hole mergers detected through gravitational waves offers unprecedented insight into their underlying population, yet their astrophysical formation channels remain unresolved. We present a new method to…
To describe a general bound binary black hole system, we need to consider orbital eccentricity and the misalignment of black holes' spin vectors with respect to the orbital angular momentum. While binary black holes produced through many…
Compact binary coalescences are the most promising sources of gravitational waves (GWs) for ground based detectors. Binary systems containing one or two spinning black holes are particularly interesting due to spin-orbit (and eventual…
Binary black-hole systems with spins aligned or anti-aligned to the orbital angular momentum provide the natural ground to start detailed studies of the influence of strong-field spin effects on gravitational wave observations of coalescing…
Despite a decade's worth of gravitational wave observation, the origin of the binary black hole (BBH) mergers detected by the LIGO-VIRGO-Kagra (LVK) collaboration remains an open question. Towards assessing the feasibility and prevalence of…
Gravitational waves (GWs) from binary black hole (BBH) mergers provide a new probe of massive-star evolution and the formation channels of binary compact objects. By coupling the growing sample of BBH systems with population synthesis…
The degree of black-hole spin-orbit misalignment ("tilts") in the astrophysical population could be a powerful diagnostic to distinguish between binary formation in isolation, in dynamical environments, or in hierarchical triples. However,…
We investigate formation channels for merging binary black holes (BBHs) in GWTC-3, with a dedicated semiparametric population model. The model first describes or excludes a high-spin (with magnitudes of $\sim0.7$) and high-mass (ranging in…
A population of more than 50 binary black hole mergers has now been observed by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave observatories. While neutron stars are known to have large velocities associated with impulsive kicks imparted to them at…
Observations of gravitational waves (GWs) from merging compact binaries have become a regular occurrence. The continued advancement of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration detectors have now produced a catalog of over 90 such mergers,…
Gravitational waves from coalescing binary black holes encode the evolution of their spins prior to merger. In the post-Newtonian regime and on the precession timescale, this evolution has one of three morphologies, with the spins either…
There is growing evidence from gravitational-wave observations that some merging black holes are created from previous mergers. Using the prediction that these hierarchically merged black holes have dimensionless spin magnitudes of $\chi…
Using recent results from numerical relativity simulations of black hole mergers, we revisit previous studies of cosmological black hole spin evolution. We show that mergers are very unlikely to yield large spins, unless alignment of the…
Since the initial discovery of gravitational-waves from merging black holes, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration together with Virgo and KAGRA have published 90 gravitational-wave observations of compact binary mergers in the…