Related papers: Are all models wrong? Falsifying binary formation …
Gravitational waves (GWs) have revealed surprising properties of binary black hole (BBH) populations, but there is still mystery surrounding how these compact objects evolve. We apply Bayesian inference and an efficient method to calculate…
We report the results of testing gravitational-wave birefringence using the largest population of gravitational-wave events currently available. Gravitational-wave birefringence, which can arise from the effective field theory extension of…
The fourth gravitational wave transient catalog~(GWTC-4) has enabled empirical probes of the theorized pair-instability gap in the higher end of the binary black hole~(BBH) mass-spectrum. In this letter, using flexibly parametrized models,…
With the discovery of the binary black hole coalescence GW150914, the era of gravitational-wave astrophysics has started. Gravitational-wave signals emitted by compact binary coalescences will be detected in large number by LIGO and Virgo…
With the third observing run the number of gravitational wave emitting events has increased significantly. The data of the recorded events is inspected to search for overall properties on the population. The properties of subpopulations are…
The global network of interferometric gravitational wave (GW) observatories (LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA) has detected and characterized nearly 100 mergers of binary compact objects. However, many more real GWs are lurking sub-threshold, which need…
A major aim of gravitational wave astronomy is to test observationally the Kerr nature of black holes. The strongest such test, with minimal additional assumptions, is provided by observations of multiple ringdown modes, also known as black…
GW190521 is a remarkable gravitational-wave signal on multiple fronts: its source is the most massive black hole binary identified to date and could have spins misaligned with its orbit, leading to spin-induced precession -- an…
Pair instability supernovae are thought to restrict the formation of black holes in the mass range ~50 - 135 solar masses. However, black holes with masses within this "high mass gap" are expected to form as the remnants of binary black…
The catalog of Gravitational Wave (GW) events is rapidly growing, providing key insights into the evolution of massive binaries and compact object formation. However, a key challenge is to explain the origin of exceptional events such as…
GW190521 is the first confident observation of a binary black hole merger with total mass $M > 100\,\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$. Given the lack of observational constraints at these masses, we analyze GW190521 considering two different priors for…
GW190521 challenges our understanding of the late-stage evolution of massive stars and the effects of the pair-instability in particular. We discuss the possibility that stars at low or zero metallicity could retain most of their hydrogen…
The heaviest black holes discovered through gravitational waves have masses that are difficult to explain with current standard stellar models. This discrepancy may be due to a series of hierarchical mergers, where the observed black holes…
Gravitational-wave measurements of the binary black hole population provide insights into the evolution of merging binaries. We explore potential correlation between mass and mass ratio with phenomenological population models where the…
We introduce a novel black hole mass function which realistically models the physics of star formation and pair instability supernova with a minimal number of parameters. Applying this to all events in the LIGO-Virgo GWTC-2 catalog, we…
Gravitational-wave observations have revealed sources whose unusual properties challenge our understanding of compact-binary formation. Inferring the formation processes that are best able to reproduce such events may therefore yield key…
The recent first detection of gravitational waves (GWs) from binary black hole mergers has spurred a renewed interest in possible deviations from General Relativity (GR), since they could be detected in the GWs emitted by such systems. Of…
On August 14, 2019, the LIGO and Virgo detectors observed GW190814, a gravitational-wave signal originating from the merger of a $\simeq 23 M_\odot$ black hole with a $\simeq 2.6 M_\odot$ compact object. GW190814's compact-binary source is…
The growing number of gravitational-wave (GW) observations allows for constraints to be placed on the underlying population of black holes; current estimates show that black hole spins are small, with binaries more likely to have comparable…
The origin of the spins of stellar-mass black holes is still controversial, and angular momentum transport inside massive stars is one of the main sources of uncertainty. Here, we apply hierarchical Bayesian inference to derive constraints…