Related papers: The Pair-Instability Mass Gap for Black Holes
We study the collapse of rapidly rotating supermassive stars that may have formed in the early Universe. By self-consistently simulating the dynamics from the onset of collapse using three-dimensional general-relativistic hydrodynamics with…
Mass transfer in binary systems is the key process in the formation of various classes of objects, including merging binary black holes (BBHs) and neutron stars. Orbital evolution during mass transfer depends on how much mass is accreted…
We review possible dynamical formation processes for central massive black holes in dense star clusters. We focus on the early dynamical evolution of young clusters containing a few thousand to a few million stars. One natural formation…
In this paper we discuss the evolution of gravitationally unstable pre-galactic discs that result from the collapse of haloes at high redshift $z \approx 10$ or so, which have not yet been enriched by metals. In cases where molecular…
Gravitational-wave detections are now probing the black hole (BH) mass distribution, including the predicted pair-instability mass gap. These data require robust quantitative predictions, which are challenging to obtain. The most massive BH…
Theoretical models predict that a population of Intermediate Mass Black Holes (IMBHs) of mass $M_\bullet \approx 10^{4-5} \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ might form at high ($z > 10$) redshift by different processes. Such objects would represent the…
The existence of 10$^9$ M$_{\odot}$ black holes (BH) in massive galaxies by $z \ sim$ 7 is one of the great unsolved mysteries in cosmological structure formation. One theory argues that they originate from the black holes of Pop III stars…
We perform a suite of high-resolution smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations to investigate the orbital decay and mass evolution of massive black hole (MBH) pairs down to scales of ~30 pc during minor mergers of disk galaxies. Our…
The formation of close massive black-hole binaries is a challenge for binary evolutionary models, especially the intriguing system M33 X-7 which harbours one of the most massive stellar-mass black holes (16 solar masses) orbiting a 70 solar…
We calculate the evolution of massive stars, which undergo pulsational pair-instability (PPI) when the O-rich core is formed. The evolution from the main-sequence through the onset of PPI is calculated for stars with the initial masses of…
We study the early dynamical evolution of young, dense star clusters using Monte Carlo simulations for systems with up to N~10^7 stars. Rapid mass segregation of massive main-sequence stars and the development of the Spitzer instability can…
We derive the theoretical distribution function of black hole masses by studying the formation processes of black holes. We use the results of recent 2D simulations of core-collapse to obtain the relation between remnant and progenitor…
Detailed stellar evolution and supernova models yield a bimodal black-hole mass distribution with a narrow peak around 10 solar masses from stars within a narrow range of progenitor properties and a second broader peak starting around 20…
We propose a scenario for mass evolution of massive black holes (MBH) in galactic nuclei, to explain both the mass correlation of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) with the bulge and the down-sizing behavior of the active galactic nuclei.…
As the number of observed merging binary black holes (BHs) grows, accurate models are required to disentangle multiple formation channels. In models with isolated binaries, important uncertainties remain regarding the stability of mass…
Recent observations of globular clusters (GCs) provide evidence that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) may not be universal, suggesting specifically that the IMF grows increasingly top-heavy with decreasing metallicity and increasing…
In this letter we focus on the peculiar case of a coalescing compact-object binary whose chirp mass is compatible both with a neutron star-neutron star and black hole-neutron star system, with the black hole in the $\sim 3-5M_\odot$ range…
Light curves, explosion energies, and remnant masses are calculated for a grid of supernovae resulting from massive helium stars that have been evolved including mass loss. These presupernova stars should approximate the results of binary…
We explore the growth of super-massive black holes and host galaxy bulges in the galaxy population using the Millennium Run LCDM simulation coupled with a model of galaxy formation. We find that, if galaxy mergers are the primary drivers…
We discuss the formation and evolution of systems comprised of a low-mass ($M_\star \lesssim 4 \, \rm M_\odot$) main sequence star, orbiting a $10^5-10^7 \, \rm M_\odot$ supermassive black hole with an orbital period of order $\sim$hours,…