Related papers: Exploring stellar evolution with gravitational-wav…
Are the stellar-mass merging binary black holes, recently detected by their gravitational wave signal, of stellar or primordial origin? Answering this question will have profound implications for our understanding of the Universe, including…
Gravitational waves from merging binary black holes can be used to shed light on poorly understood aspects of massive binary stellar evolution, such as the evolution of massive stars (including their mass-loss rates), the common envelope…
The LIGO and Virgo detectors have directly observed gravitational waves from mergers of pairs of stellar-mass black holes, along with a smaller number of mergers involving neutron stars. These observations raise the hope that compact object…
Merging supermassive black hole binaries is expected as a consequence of galaxy mergers, yet the detailed evolution path and underlying merging mechanisms of these binaries are still subject to large theoretical uncertainties. In this work,…
The properties of the population of merging binary black holes encode some of the uncertain physics of the evolution of massive stars in binaries. The binary black hole merger rate and chirp mass distribution are being measured by…
We estimate the observed distribution of chirp masses of compact object binaries for the gravitational wave detectors. The stellar binary evolution is modeled using the {\em StarTrack} population synthesis code. The distribution of the…
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…
A measurement of the history of cosmic star formation is central to understand the origin and evolution of galaxies. The measurement is extremely challenging using electromagnetic radiation: significant modeling is required to convert…
The detection of gravitational waves emitted by binary black holes raises questions regarding the origin of binaries. There are several models in the literature involving binary evolution in both the field and clusters. We compare the…
The first directly detected gravitational waves (GW 150914) were emitted by two coalescing black holes (BHs) with masses of ~36Msun and ~29Msun. Several scenarios have been proposed to put this detection into an astrophysical context. The…
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 recent detection of the binary black hole merger GW150914 demonstrates the existence of black holes more massive than previously observed in X-ray binaries in our Galaxy. This article explores different scenarios of black hole formation…
We compute the isotropic gravitational wave (GW) background produced by binary supermassive black holes (SBHs) in galactic nuclei. In our model, massive binaries evolve at early times via gravitational-slingshot interaction with nearby…
Gravitational waves inform about the probable distances at which an observed signal originated. This information when combined over multiple observations is used in the modeling of the redshift evolution of the merger rate. This is an…
The advent of gravitational-wave astronomy is now allowing for the study of compact binary merger demographics throughout the Universe. This information can be leveraged as tools for understanding massive stars, their environments, and…
We construct evolutionary tracks for massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) embedded in a surrounding distribution of stars. The dynamics of the binary is evolved by taking into account the erosion of the central stellar cusp bound to the…
If binaries consisting of two 100 Msun black holes exist they would serve as extraordinarily powerful gravitational-wave sources, detectable to redshifts of z=2 with the advanced LIGO/Virgo ground-based detectors. Large uncertainties about…
We explore the ability of gravitational-wave detectors to extract the redshift distribution of binary black hole (BBH) mergers. The evolution of the merger rate across redshifts $0 < z \lesssim 1$ is directly tied to the formation and…
These are exciting times for binary black hole (BBH) research. LIGO and Virgo detections are progressively drawing a spectacular fresco of BBH masses, spins and merger rates. In this review, we discuss the main formation channels of BBHs…
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…