Related papers: An upper limit on the spins of merging binary blac…
It is speculated that a merger of two massive stellar-origin BHs in a dense stellar environment may lead to the formation of a massive BH in the pair-instability mass gap (50-135 Msun). Such a merger-formed BH is expected to typically have…
Current theoretical models predict a mass gap with a dearth of stellar black holes (BHs) between roughly $50\,M_\odot$ and $100\,M_\odot$, while, above the range accessible through massive star evolution, intermediate-mass BHs (IMBHs) still…
All ten LIGO/Virgo binary black hole (BH-BH) coalescences reported from the O1/O2 runs have near zero effective spins. There are only three potential explanations of this fact. If the BH spin magnitudes are large then (i) either both BH…
In this paper we study the evolution of a primordial black hole binary (BHB) in a sample of over 1500 direct-summation $N-$body simulations of small-and intermediate-size isolated star clusters as proxies of galactic open clusters. The BHBs…
There is growing evidence from gravitational-wave observations that some merging black holes are created from previous mergers. Using the prediction that these hierarchically merged black holes have dimensionless spin magnitudes of $\chi…
Short-period massive binary stars are predicted to undergo chemically homogeneous evolution (CHE), making them prime candidates for producing binary black holes (BBHs) that may merge within the age of the Universe. Most of these binaries…
We aim to study the progenitor properties and expected rates of the two lowest-mass binary black hole (BH) mergers, GW 151226 and GW 170608, detected within the first two Advanced LIGO-Virgo runs, in the context of the isolated…
The growing number of black hole binary (BHB) mergers detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) have the potential to enable an unprecedented characterization of the physical processes and astrophysical…
We investigate formation channels for merging binary black holes (BBHs) in GWTC-3, with a dedicated semiparametric population model. The model first describes or excludes a high-spin (with magnitudes of $\sim0.7$) and high-mass (ranging in…
Despite a decade's worth of gravitational wave observation, the origin of the binary black hole (BBH) mergers detected by the LIGO-VIRGO-Kagra (LVK) collaboration remains an open question. Towards assessing the feasibility and prevalence of…
One proposed formation channel for stellar mass black holes (BHs) is through hierarchical mergers of smaller BHs. Repeated mergers between comparable mass BHs leave an imprint on the spin of the resulting BH, since the final BH spin is…
We explore chemically homogeneous evolution (CHE) as a formation channel for massive merging binary black holes (BBHs). We develop methods to include CHE in a rapid binary population synthesis code, Compact Object Mergers: Population…
Black hole (BH) mergers driven by gravitational perturbations of external companions constitute an important class of formation channels for merging BH binaries detected by LIGO. We have studied the orbital and spin evolution of binary BHs…
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…
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…
Merging binary black holes (BBHs) formed dynamically in dense star clusters are expected to have uncorrelated spin--orbit orientations since they are assembled through many random interactions. However, measured effective spins in BBHs…
The LIGO/Virgo collaboration has reported 50 black hole-black hole (BH-BH) mergers and 8 candidates recovered from digging deeper into the detectors noise. The majority of these mergers have low effective spins pointing toward low BH spins…
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…
We investigate the formation of merging binary black holes (BHs) through isolated binary evolution, performing binary population synthesis calculations covering an unprecedentedly wide metallicity range of Population (Pop) I, II, III, and…
Binary black holes may form both through isolated binary evolution and through dynamical interactions in dense stellar environments. The formation channel leaves an imprint on the alignment between the black hole spins and the orbital…