Related papers: Missing in Action: New Physics and the Black Hole …
With mass ratio larger than $\sim 5$ (which depends on the black hole spin and the star radius), star disruption is not expected for a black hole merging with a neutron star during the final plunge phase. In the late inspiral stage, the…
We analyze the population statistics of black holes in the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA GWTC-3 catalog using a parametric mass function derived from simulations of massive stars experiencing pulsational pair-instability supernovae (PPISN). Our…
Theoretical modeling of massive stars predicts a gap in the black hole (BH) mass function above $\sim 40-50\,M_{\odot}$ for BHs formed through single star evolution, arising from (pulsational) pair-instability supernovae. However, in dense…
We calculate the observable signature of a black hole accretion disk with a gap or hole created by a secondary black hole embedded in the disk. We find that for an interesting range of parameters of black hole masses (~10^6 to 10^9 solar…
Supermassive black holes containing ~0.5% of the stellar mass of their host galaxies appear to be ubiquitous components of galactic nuclei. The gravitational force from these central singularities can influence the motion of stars far…
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 mass range of observed black holes extends from stellar-mass to supermassive scales, yet the existence of objects in the intermediate-mass range of $10^{2} - 10^{5} \text{M}_{\odot}$ remains unconfirmed. Black holes are suspected to…
The mathematical simplicity of black holes, combined with their links to some of the most energetic events in the universe, means that black holes are key objects for fundamental physics and astrophysics. Until recently, it was generally…
Black holes in binaries with other compact objects can provide natural venues for indirect detection of axions or other ultralight fields. The superradiant instability associated with a rapidly spinning black hole leads to the creation of…
We discuss masses of stellar black holes found in binary systems and errors in their determination. The observed mass distribution has a broad shape within the range $4-16 M_\odot$ without visible concentration to some preferred value. On…
At the end of their lives the most massive stars collapse into black holes (BHs). The detection of an 85 $M_{\odot}$ BH from GW 190521 appeared to challenge the upper-mass limit imposed by pair-instability (PI). Using systematic MESA…
Black holes are extreme expressions of gravity. Their existence is predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity and is supported by observations. Black holes obey quantum mechanics and evaporate spontaneously. Here it is shown that…
Stellar dynamical modeling is a powerful method to determine the mass of black holes in quiescent galaxies. However, in previous work the presence of a dark matter halo has been ignored in the modeling. Gebhardt & Thomas (2009) showed that…
Most stellar evolution models predict that black holes (BHs) should not exist above approximately $50-70$ M$_\odot$, the lower limit of the pair-instability mass gap. However, recent LIGO/Virgo detections indicate the existence of BHs with…
The detection of the gravitational wave (GW) event GW190521 raises questions about the formation of black holes within the pair-instability mass gap (PIBHs). We propose that Population III (Pop III) star clusters significantly contribute to…
The high sensitivity of upcoming space-based gravitational wave detectors suggests the possibility that if halo dark matter were composed of primordial black holes (PBHs) with mass between $10^{16}$ g and 10$^{20}$ g, the gravitational…
Primordial black holes (PBHs) are mainly characterized by their mass function, in which there may be some huge suppression for certain mass spans. If this is the case, the absence of these PBHs will form mass gaps. In this paper, we…
Models of pair-instability supernovae (PISNe) predict a gap in black hole (BH) masses between $\sim 45M_\odot-120M_\odot$, which is referred to as the upper BH mass-gap. With the advent of gravitational-wave astrophysics it has become…
Gravitational-wave detections have revealed a previously unknown population of stellar mass black holes with masses above $20\, M_{\odot}$. These observations provide a new way to test models of stellar evolution for massive stars. By…
Stellar-mass black holes ($3$ $M_\odot \lesssim M_{\rm BH} \lesssim 150$ $M_\odot$) are the natural product of the evolution of heavy stars ($M_{\rm star} \gtrsim 20$ $M_\odot$). In our Galaxy, we expect $10^8$-$10^9$ stellar-mass black…