Related papers: Understanding the high-mass binary black hole popu…
Recent gravitational wave observations showed that binary black hole (BBH) mergers with massive components are more likely to have high effective spins. In the model of isolated binary evolution, BH spins mainly originate from the angular…
The theory for single stellar evolution predicts a gap in the mass distribution of black holes (BHs) between approximately 45-130M$_{\odot}$, the so-called "pair-instability mass gap". We examine whether BHs can pollute the gap after…
The vast majority of massive binary systems in the universe is evidently unsuited to produce merging binary black holes. However, several narrow evolutionary paths of isolated massive binaries towards this goal have recently been…
Rapid binary population synthesis codes are often used to investigate the evolution of compact-object binaries. They typically rely on analytical fits of single-star evolutionary tracks and parameterized models for interactive phases of…
We study the impact of mass-transfer physics on the observable properties of binary black hole populations formed through isolated binary evolution. We investigate the impact of mass-accretion efficiency onto compact objects and…
In isolated binary evolution, binary black hole (BBH) mergers are generally formed through stable mass transfer (SMT) or common envelope evolution. In recent years, the SMT channel has received significant attention due to detailed binary…
The LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors have uncovered binary black hole systems with definitively nonzero spins, as well as systems with significant spin residing in the more massive black hole of the pair. We investigate the…
The mass ratio of merging binary black holes (BBHs) carries information about their formation history, yet has received less attention than masses, spins and eccentricities as a channel discriminator. We derive a strongly parametrized…
The ground-based measurement of gravitational waves (GW) from merging binary black holes (BBH) uniquely allows determination of spins of stellar-remnant black holes (BH), thereby offering insights into their formation mechanisms. The…
The population of binary black hole (BBH) mergers observed by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration offers a window into the cosmic evolution of compact binaries and their formation. We employ the semi-analytic population-synthesis code…
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…
Gravitational-wave detectors are unveiling a population of binary black hole (BBH) mergers out to redshifts $z \approx 1$, and are starting to constrain how the BBH population evolves with redshift. We present predictions for the redshift…
Gravitational wave detectors are observing an increasing number of binary black hole (BBH) mergers, revealing a bimodal mass distribution of BBHs, which hints at diverse formation histories for these systems. Using the rapid binary…
We present results on the mass, spin, and redshift distributions with phenomenological population models using the ten binary black hole mergers detected in the first and second observing runs completed by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo.…
When modeling the population of merging binary black holes, analyses have generally focused on characterizing the distribution of primary (i.e. more massive) black holes in the binary, while simplistic prescriptions are used for the…
Early JWST observations are providing growing evidence for a ubiquitous population of accreting supermassive black holes (BHs) at high redshift, many of which appear overmassive compared to the empirically-derived local scaling relation…
The properties of the population of merging binary black holes encode some of the uncertain physics of the evolution of massive stars in binaries. The binary black hole merger rate and chirp mass distribution are being measured by…
Observations of $z \gtrsim 6$ quasars provide information on the early evolution of the most massive black holes (MBHs) and galaxies. Current observations, able to trace both gas and stellar properties, reveal a population of MBHs that is…
We study the growth of supermassive black holes accounting for both accretion and mergers. The former is informed by observations of the quasar luminosity function (QLF) and the latter by the gravitational wave-background (GWB) recently…
The origins of coalescing binary black holes (BBHs) detected by the advanced LIGO/Virgo are still under debate, and clues may be present in the joint mass-spin distribution of these merger events. Here we construct phenomenological models…