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The latest GWTC-4 release from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration nearly doubles the known population of double compact object mergers and reveals a new trimodal structure in the chirp-mass distribution of merging binary black holes…

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…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-04-12 Simon Stevenson , Christopher P. L. Berry , Ilya Mandel

We develop a new method based on Gaussian process to reconstruct the mass distribution of binary black holes (BBHs). Instead of prespecifying the formalisms of mass distribution, we introduce a more flexible and nonparametric model with…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-08-18 Yin-Jie Li , Yuan-Zhu Wang , Ming-Zhe Han , Shao-Peng Tang , Qiang Yuan , Yi-Zhong Fan , Da-Ming Wei

Repeated black-hole mergers in dense stellar clusters are a plausible mechanism to populate the predicted gap in black hole masses due to the pair-instability supernova process. These hierarchical mergers carry distinct spin characteristics…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2026-05-06 Cailin Plunkett , Thomas Callister , Michael Zevin , Salvatore Vitale

We present the population properties of binary black hole mergers identified by the $\tt{IAS\text{-}HM}$ pipeline (which incorporates higher-order modes in the search templates) during the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO, Virgo, and…

The spins of merging binary black holes offer insights into their formation history. Recently it has been argued that in isolated binary evolution of two massive stars the firstborn black hole is slowly rotating, whilst the progenitor of…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-10-26 Floor S. Broekgaarden , Simon Stevenson , Eric Thrane

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…

Hierarchical black hole (BH) mergers are one of the most straightforward mechanisms to produce BHs inside and above the pair-instability mass gap. Here, we investigate the impact of globular cluster (GC) evolution on hierarchical mergers,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-08-14 Stefano Torniamenti , Michela Mapelli , Carole Périgois , Manuel Arca Sedda , M. Celeste Artale , Marco Dall'Amico , M. Paola Vaccaro

The formation mechanisms of merging binary black holes (BBHs) observed by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration remain uncertain. Detectable eccentricity provides a powerful diagnostic for distinguishing between different formation channels,…

The spins of black holes in merging binaries can reveal information related to the formation and evolution of these systems through their gravitational wave emission. Combining events to infer the astrophysical distribution of black hole…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-03-15 Jacob Golomb , Colm Talbot

We study the population properties of merging binary black holes in the second LIGO--Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog assuming they were all formed dynamically in gravitationally bound clusters. Using a phenomenological population…

The recent discovery of GW150914, the binary black hole merger detected by Advanced LIGO, has the potential to revolutionize observational astrophysics. But to fully utilize this new window into the universe, we must compare these new…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2016-04-20 Carl L. Rodriguez , Sourav Chatterjee , Frederic A. Rasio

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…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-01-28 Yubo Su

While the origin of merging black-hole binaries observed in gravitational waves remain uncertain, different formation channels are expected to leave distinct imprints on their observed mass and spin distributions. In this work, we focus on…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-05-26 Asad Hussain , Maximiliano Isi , Aaron Zimmerman

We introduce the first complete non-parametric model for the astrophysical distribution of the binary black hole (BBH) population. Constructed from basis splines, we use these models to conduct the most comprehensive data-driven…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-03-29 Bruce Edelman , Ben Farr , Zoheyr Doctor

The spins of binary black holes (BBHs) measured from gravitational waves carry notable information of the formation pathways. Here we propose a quantity "dimensionless net spin" ($\chi_{\rm N}$), which is related to the sum of angular…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-06-06 Wei-Hua Guo , Yin-Jie Li , Yuan-Zhu Wang , Yong Shao , Shichao Wu , Tao Zhu , Yi-Zhong Fan

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…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2017-08-29 Colm Talbot , Eric Thrane

I investigate the roles of cluster dynamics and massive binary evolution in producing stellar-remnant binary black hole (BBH) mergers over the cosmic time. To that end, dynamical BBH mergers are obtained from long-term direct N-body…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-01-19 Sambaran Banerjee

We study the evolution of the binary black hole (BBH) mass distribution across cosmic time. The second gravitational-wave transient catalog (GWTC-2) from LIGO/Virgo contains BBH events out to redshifts $z \sim 1$, with component masses in…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-05-12 Maya Fishbach , Zoheyr Doctor , Thomas Callister , Bruce Edelman , Jiani Ye , Reed Essick , Will M. Farr , Ben Farr , Daniel E. Holz

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…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-11-10 Hui Tong , Thomas A. Callister , Maya Fishbach , Eric Thrane , Fabio Antonini , Simon Stevenson , Isobel M. Romero-Shaw , Fani Dosopoulou