Related papers: Spin distribution of binary black holes formed in …
Merging compact black-hole (BH) binaries are likely to exist in the nuclear star clusters around supermassive BHs (SMBHs), such as Sgr A$^\ast$. They may also form in the accretion disks of active galactic nuclei. Such compact binaries can…
Various binary black hole formation channels have been proposed since the first gravitational event GW150914 was discovered by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (AdLIGO). For all evolutionary channels based on…
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…
Mass and spin of massive black holes (BHs) at the centre of galaxies evolve due to gas accretion and mergers with other BHs. Besides affecting e.g. the evolution of relativistic jets, the BH spin determines the efficiency with which the BH…
To date, various formation channels of merging events have been heavily explored with the detection of nearly 100 double black hole (BH) merger events reported by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration. We here systematically investigate…
Hierarchical black hole (BH) mergers are one of the most straightforward mechanisms to produce BHs inside and above the pair-instability mass gap. Here, we investigate the impact of globular cluster (GC) evolution on hierarchical mergers,…
The identification of the first confirmed neutron star - black hole (NS-BH) binary mergers by the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA collaboration provides the opportunity to investigate the properties of the early sample of confirmed and candidate…
We reanalyse the LIGO-Virgo strain data of the 10 binary black hole mergers reported to date and compute the likelihood function in terms of chirp mass, mass ratio and effective spin. We discuss the strong degeneracy between mass ratio and…
Massive black hole (MBH) binary inspiral time scales are uncertain, and their spins are even more poorly constrained. Spin misalignment, along with unequal mass ratios and spin magnitudes, introduces asymmetry in the gravitational…
We detail the population properties of merging compact objects using 158 mergers from the cumulative Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog 4.0, which includes three types of binary mergers: binary neutron star, neutron star--black hole…
Attempts to understand the formation of binary black hole (BBH) systems detected via gravitational wave (GW) emission are affected by many unknowns and uncertainties, from both the observational and theoretical (astrophysical modelling)…
Young massive clusters (YMC) and open clusters (OC) are widely considered as potential environments for assembling merging binary stellar-remnant black holes (BBH) via dynamical interactions. However, such moderate mass systems are…
Black hole-neutron star (BHNS) binary mergers are candidate engines for generating both short-hard gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) and detectable gravitational waves. Using our most recent conformal thin-sandwich BHNS initial data and our fully…
Young star clusters are the most common birth-place of massive stars and are dynamically active environments. Here, we study the formation of black holes (BHs) and binary black holes (BBHs) in young star clusters, by means of 6000 N-body…
The connection between the binary black hole (BBH) mergers observed by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) and their stellar progenitors remains uncertain. Specifically, the fraction $\epsilon$ of stellar mass that ends up in BBH mergers and the delay…
Black-hole (BH) high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) systems are likely to be the progenitors of BH-BH mergers detected by LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA (LVK). Yet merging BHs reach higher masses ($\sim 100M_{\odot}$) than BHs in HMXBs ($\sim 20 M_{\odot}$)…
GW231123 is the most massive binary black hole (BBH) merger detected to date by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration. With at least one black hole (BH) in the upper-mass gap and both BHs exhibiting high spins ($\chi_{1,2} \gtrsim 0.8$), this…
Black hole-neutron star (BHNS) mergers are thought to be sources of gravitational waves (GWs) with coincident electromagnetic (EM) counterparts. To further probe whether these systems are viable progenitors of short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs)…
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…
Dynamical interactions in dense star clusters could significantly influence the properties of black holes, leaving imprints on their gravitational-wave signatures. While previous studies have mostly focused on repeated black hole mergers…