Related papers: On the large apparent black hole spin-orbit misali…
GW190521, the most massive binary black hole merger confidently detected by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, is the first gravitational-wave observation of an intermediate-mass black hole. The signal was followed approximately 34 days…
Black hole (BH) - neutron star (NS) binary mergers are not only strong sources of gravitational waves (GWs), but they are also candidates for joint detections in the GW and electromagnetic (EM) spectra. However, the possible emergence of an…
The recent detection of GW230529 suggests that black hole-neutron star mergers may involve low-mass black holes, potentially producing detectable electromagnetic counterparts. Motivated by this, we perform eleven fully general-relativistic…
The LIGO/Virgo Scientific Collaboration recently announced the detection of a compact object binary merger, GW190412, as the first asymmetric binary black hole (BBH) merger with mass ratio $q\approx0.25$. Other than the mass ratio, this BBH…
Black-hole (BH) binary mergers driven by gravitational perturbations of tertiary companions constitute an important class of dynamical formation channels for compact binaries detected by LIGO/VIRGO. Recent works have examined numerically…
The detection of the unusually heavy binary neutron star merger GW190425 marked a stark contrast to the mass distribution from known Galactic pulsars in double neutron star binaries and gravitational-wave source GW170817. We suggest here a…
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…
During the fourth observing run, the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration reported the detection of a coalescing compact binary (GW230529$_{-}$181500) with component masses estimated at $2.5-4.5\, M_\odot$ and $1.2-2.0\, M_\odot$ with 90\%…
The merger of two massive 30 Msun black holes has been detected in gravitational waves (1,GW150914). This discovery validates recent predictions (2-4) that massive binary black holes would constitute the first detection. However, previous…
Measuring the distribution of spin tilts-the angles between the spin vectors and the binary orbital angular momentum-in stellar-mass binary black holes detected by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA would provide valuable insight into their astrophysical…
The detection of GW230529_181500 suggested the existence of more symmetric black hole-neutron star mergers where the black hole mass can be as low as 2.6 times that of the neutron star. Black hole-neutron star binaries with even more…
When unequal-mass black holes merge, the final black hole receives a ``kick'' due to the asymmetric loss of linear momentum in the gravitational radiation emitted during the merger. The magnitude of this kick has important astrophysical…
The first direct observation of a binary neutron star (BNS) merger was a watershed moment in multi-messenger astronomy. However, gravitational waves from GW170817 have only been observed prior to the BNS merger, but electromagnetic…
The origin of black hole mergers discovered by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave observatories is currently unknown. GW190521 is the heaviest black hole merger detected so far. Its observed high mass and possible spin-induced orbital…
GW231123 is an exceptionally massive binary black hole (BBH) merger with unusually high component spins. Such extreme properties challenge conventional stellar evolution models predicting a black hole mass gap due to pair-instability…
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)…
Two gravitational wave events, i.e. GW200105 and GW200115, were observed by the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors recently. In this work, we show that they can be explained by a scenario of primordial black hole binaries that are formed in…
Interactions between a supermassive black hole binary and the surrounding accretion disc can both assist the binary inspiral and align the black hole spins to the disc angular momentum. While binary migration is due to angular-momentum…
Recent work paints a conflicting portrait of the distribution of black hole spins in merging binaries measured with gravitational waves. Some analyses find that a significant fraction of merging binaries contain at least one black hole with…
The third observing run of the LIGO/Virgo/KARGA collaboration reported a few neutron star - black hole (NSBH) merger events. While NSBH mergers have yet to receive extensive theoretical attention, they may have a promising electromagnetic…