Related papers: Binary black holes mergers from hierarchical tripl…
With better statistics and precision, eccentricity could prove to be a useful tool for understanding the origin and environment of binary black holes. Hierarchical triples in particular, which might be abundant in globular clusters and…
In a globular cluster, hierarchical triple black hole systems can be produced through binary-binary interaction. It has been proposed recently that the Kozai mechanism could drive the inner binary of the triple system to merge before it is…
We present a novel self-consistent theoretical framework to characterize the formation, evolution, and merger sites of dynamically-formed black hole binaries, with a focus on explaining the most massive events observed by the…
Dense star clusters are thought to contribute significantly to the merger rates of stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) detected by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration. We combine $N$-body dynamic models of realistic dense star clusters…
The observed binary black hole (BBH) mergers indicate a large Galactic progenitor population continuously evolving from large orbital separations and low gravitational wave (GW) frequencies to the final merger phase. We investigate the…
Two of the dominant channels to produce the black-hole binary mergers observed by LIGO and Virgo are believed to be the isolated evolution of stellar binaries in the field and dynamical formation in star clusters. Their relative efficiency…
Studying compact-object binary mergers in star clusters is crucial for understanding stellar evolution and dynamical interactions in galaxies. Open clusters in particular are more abundant over cosmic time than globular clusters, however,…
Many astrophysical scenarios have been proposed to explain the several black hole (BH) and neutron star binary mergers observed via gravitational waves (GWs) by the LIGO-Virgo collaboration. Contributions from various channels can be…
The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration has detected over 150 confirmed gravitational wave events through O4a. Binary black hole (BBH) systems represent the overwhelming majority of these observations. We construct a model for the…
Possible formation mechanisms of massive close binary black holes that can merge in the Hubble time to produce powerful gravitational wave bursts detected during advanced LIGO O1 science run are briefly discussed. The pathways include the…
We explore the properties of dense star clusters that are likely to be the nurseries of stellar black holes pairing in close binaries. We combine a cosmological model of globular cluster formation with analytic prescriptions for the…
The formation mechanisms of merging binary black holes (BBHs) observed by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration remain uncertain. Detectable eccentricity provides a powerful diagnostic for distinguishing between different formation channels,…
In dense stellar environments, the merger products of binary black hole mergers may undergo additional mergers. These hierarchical mergers are predicted to have higher masses than the first generation of black holes made from stars. The…
The recent binary black hole (BH) merger GW231123, with both components likely in the high-mass gap and with high spins, challenges standard BH binary formation models. It is usually thought that the BHs are of second (or higher) generation…
The spin-orbit tilt angles $\theta_{1(2)}$ of merging stellar-mass black holes provide key insights into their astrophysical origin. Non-parametric population modelling of The LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations (2025a, arXiv:2508.18083)…
I investigate the roles of cluster dynamics and massive binary evolution in producing stellar-remnant binary black hole (BBH) mergers over the cosmic time. To that end, dynamical BBH mergers are obtained from long-term direct N-body…
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…
The recent discovery of GW150914, the binary black hole merger detected by Advanced LIGO, has the potential to revolutionize observational astrophysics. But to fully utilize this new window into the universe, we must compare these new…
Many proposed scenarios for black hole (BH) mergers involve a tertiary companion that induces von Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai (ZLK) eccentricity cycles in the inner binary. An attractive feature of such mechanisms is the enhanced merger probability…
We use our cluster population model, cBHBd, to explore the mass distribution of merging black hole binaries formed dynamically in globular clusters. We include in our models the effect of mass growth through hierarchical mergers and compare…