Related papers: Binary black holes in the pair-instability mass ga…
Merging black holes (BH) are expected to produce remnants with large dimensionless spin parameters ($a_{\rm spin} \sim 0.7$). However, gravitational wave (GW) observations with LIGO/Virgo suggest that merging BH are consistent with modestly…
Gravitational wave (GW) detections of binary black hole (BH) mergers have begun to sample the cosmic BH mass distribution. The evolution of single stellar cores predicts a gap in the BH mass distribution due to pair-instability supernova…
The existence of massive stellar black hole binaries (MBHBs), with primary black hole (BH) masses $\ge 31 \, M_\odot$, was proven by the detection of the gravitational wave (GW) event GW150914 during the first LIGO/Virgo observing run (O1),…
The LIGO/Virgo collaboration have by now detected the mergers of ten black hole binaries via the emission of gravitational radiation. The hypothesis that these black holes have formed during the cosmic QCD epoch and make up all of the…
The growing population of binary black holes (BBHs) observed by gravitational wave detectors is a potential Rosetta stone for understanding their formation channels. Here, we use an upgraded version of our semi-analytic codes {\sc…
Stellar theory predicts a forbidden range of black-hole masses between ${\sim}50$--$130\,M_\odot$ due to pair-instability supernovae, but evidence for such a gap in the mass distribution from gravitational-wave astronomy has proved elusive.…
It has been proposed that some black holes (BHs) in binary black hole (BBH) systems are born from "hierarchical mergers" (HM); i.e. earlier mergers of smaller BHs. These HM products have spin magnitudes $\chi \sim 0.7$, and, if they are…
On September 14 2015, the LIGO interferometers captured a gravitational wave (GW) signal from two merging black holes (BHs), opening the era of GW astrophysics. Five BH mergers have been reported so far, three of them involving massive BHs…
We consider the formation of binary black hole mergers through the evolution of field massive triple stars. In this scenario, favorable conditions for the inspiral of a black hole binary are initiated by its gravitational interaction with a…
Recently discovered bursts of gravitational waves provide a good opportunity to verify the current view on the evolution of close binary stars. Modern population synthesis computer programs help to study this evolution from two main…
Primordial Black Holes (PBH) with masses of order $10-30 M_\odot$ have been proposed as a possible explanation of the gravitational waves emission events recently discovered by the LIGO observatory. If true, then PBHs would constitute a…
We analyze the LIGO/Virgo GWTC-2 catalog to study the primary mass distribution of the merging black holes. We perform hierarchical Bayesian analysis, and examine whether the mass distribution has a sharp cutoff for primary black hole…
Binary black holes (BBHs) are thought to form in different environments, including the galactic field and (globular, nuclear, young and open) star clusters. Here, we propose a method to estimate the fingerprints of the main BBH formation…
The population of binary black hole mergers identified through gravitational waves has uncovered unexpected features in the intrinsic properties of black holes in the universe. One particularly surprising and exciting result is the possible…
We present results on the mass, spin, and redshift distributions with phenomenological population models using the ten binary black hole mergers detected in the first and second observing runs completed by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo.…
We investigate the evolution of star clusters containing intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) of $300$ to $5000\ \mathrm{M}_\odot$, focusing on the formation and evolution of IMBH-stellar mass black holes (SBHs; $M_{\rm BH} \lesssim 10^2\…
We analyze binary black hole (BBH) mergers from the latest Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-3) using a flexible, non-parametric framework to infer the underlying black hole mass distribution. Our model employs Gaussian Processes…
Astrophysical black holes (BHs) can be fully described by their mass and spin. However, producing rapidly spinning ones is extremely difficult as the stars that produce them lose most of their angular momentum before the BH is formed.…
The existence of a mass gap of $3-5\,M_{\odot}$ between the heaviest neutron stars (NSs) and the lightest black holes (BHs), inferred from the BH mass distribution in low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), has been suggested for decades. The…
We analyze the dynamical evolution of binary stars that interact with a static background of single stars in the environment of a massive black hole (MBH). All stars are considered to be single mass, Newtonian point particles. We follow the…