Related papers: An upper limit on the spins of merging binary blac…
In this paper, the second in a series of two, we justify two important assumptions on which the result is based that in course of a galaxy merger the slingshot ejection of bound stars is sufficiently efficient to allow a supermassive black…
There are at least two formation scenarios consistent with the first gravitational-wave observations of binary black hole mergers. In field models, black hole binaries are formed from stellar binaries that may undergo common envelope…
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 model for the first time the complete orbital evolution of a pair of Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) in a 1:10 galaxy merger of two disk dominated gas-rich galaxies, from the stage prior to the formation of the binary up to the onset of…
We explore a newly proposed channel to create binary black holes of stellar origin. This scenario applies to massive, tight binaries where mixing induced by rotation and tides transports the products of hydrogen burning throughout the…
Gravitational-wave observations of massive, rapidly spinning binary black holes mergers provide increasing evidence for the dynamical origin of some mergers. Previous studies have interpreted the mergers with primary mass…
The recent inference of a 70M_sun black hole (BH) in the Galactic, detached binary LB-1 has sparked cross-disciplinary debate since a stellar remnant of such large mass is well above what can be expected from stellar-evolutionary theory,…
Recent detections of gravitational waves from mergers of binary black holes (BBHs) with pre-merger source-frame individual masses in the so-called upper mass-gap, expected due to (pulsational) pair instability supernova ((P)PISN), have…
We present theoretical models of black hole (BH) populations in young stellar environments, such as starbursts and young star clusters. Using a population synthesis approach we compute the formation rates and characteristic properties of…
The identification of the first confirmed neutron star - black hole (NS-BH) binary mergers by the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA collaboration provides the opportunity to investigate the properties of the early sample of confirmed and candidate…
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…
The two neutron star-black hole mergers (GW200105 and GW200115) observed in gravitational waves by advanced LIGO and Virgo, mark the first ever discovery of such binaries in nature. We study these two neutron star-black hole systems through…
Galaxies with stellar bulges are generically observed to host supermassive black holes (SMBHs). The hierarchical merging of galaxies should therefore lead to the formation of SMBH binaries. Merging of old massive galaxies with little gas…
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…
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…
We explore the ability of gravitational-wave detectors to extract the redshift distribution of binary black hole (BBH) mergers. The evolution of the merger rate across redshifts $0 < z \lesssim 1$ is directly tied to the formation and…
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…
Black hole (BH) triples represent one of the astrophysical pathways for BH mergers in the Universe detectable by LIGO and VIRGO. We study the formation of BH triples via binary-binary encounters in dense clusters, showing that one-third of…
We study the contribution of binary black hole (BH-BH) mergers from the first, metal-free stars in the Universe (Pop III) to gravitational wave detection rates. Our study combines initial conditions for the formation of Pop III stars based…
Hierarchical mergers of black holes are proposed as a mechanism to explain the observations of binary black holes with component masses between $\sim 50M_{\odot}\hbox{--}130M_{\odot}$ by LIGO/Virgo, often referred to as "upper mass gap". We…