Related papers: Lucky Strikes: On the Origins of GW190814 Through …
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 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…
GW190814 was reported during LIGO's and Virgo's third observing run with the most asymmetric component masses (a $\sim 23$ $M_{\odot}$ black hole and a $\sim2.6$ $M_{\odot}$ compact object). Under the assumption that this event is a binary…
Merging binary neutron stars are thought to be formed predominantly via isolated binary evolution. In this standard formation scenario, the first-born neutron star goes through a recycling process and might be rapidly spinning during the…
In their most recent observing run, the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration observed gravitational waves (GWs) from compact binary mergers with highly asymmetric mass ratios, including both binary black holes (BBHs) and neutron star--black…
The long wait for the detection of merging black hole -- neutron star (BH--NS) binaries is finally over with the announcement by the LIGO/Virgo/Kagra collaboration of GW200105 and GW200115. Remarkably, the primary of GW200115 has a negative…
We report on the impact of a probabilistic prescription for compact remnant masses and kicks on massive binary population synthesis. We find that this prescription populates the putative mass gap between neutron stars and black holes with…
Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo's newly-released GWTC-2 catalog of gravitational-wave detections offers unprecedented information about the spin magnitudes and orientations of merging binary black holes (BBHs). Notably, analysis of the BBH…
Gravitational waves (GWs) from binary black hole (BBH) mergers provide a new probe of massive-star evolution and the formation channels of binary compact objects. By coupling the growing sample of BBH systems with population synthesis…
The gravitational wave source GW190412 is a binary black hole (BBH) merger with three unique properties: i) its mass ratio is about 0.28, the lowest found so far, ii) it has a relatively high positive effective spin parameter \chi_eff=0.25,…
The inferred parameters of the binary black hole GW151226 are consistent with nonzero spin for the most massive black hole, misaligned from the binary's orbital angular momentum. If the black holes formed through isolated binary evolution…
Some fraction of compact binaries that merge within a Hubble time may have formed from two massive stars in isolation. For this isolated-binary formation channel, binaries need to survive two supernova (SN) explosions in addition to…
We compare binary evolution models with different assumptions about black-hole natal kicks to the first gravitational-wave observations performed by the LIGO detectors. Our comparisons attempt to reconcile merger rate, masses, spins, and…
With the growing number of binary black hole (BBH) mergers detected by LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA, several systems have become difficult to explain via isolated binary evolution, having components in the pair-instability mass gap, high orbital…
The first directly observed gravitational wave event, GW150914, featuring the merger of two massive black holes, highlighted the need to determine how these systems of compact remnant binaries are formed. We use the binary population…
Since the initial discovery of gravitational-waves from merging black holes, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration together with Virgo and KAGRA have published 90 gravitational-wave observations of compact binary mergers in the…
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…
We explore the possibility that GW190412, a binary black hole merger with a non-equal-mass ratio and significantly spinning primary, was formed through repeated black hole mergers in a dense super star cluster. Using a combination of…
Two of the dominant channels to produce merging stellar-mass black-hole binaries are believed to be the isolated evolution of binary stars in the field and dynamical formation in star clusters. The first reported black-hole binary event…
GW170817/GRB170817A, a short gamma-ray burst arising from a low-mass compact object merger was the first multi-messenger discovery of a compact binary system outside the local galactic neighborhood. From gravitational-wave measurements, we…