A Star Cluster Population of High Mass Black Hole Mergers in Gravitational Wave Data

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Autores principales: Antonini, Fabio, Romero-Shaw, Isobel M., Callister, Thomas
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Antonini, Fabio
Romero-Shaw, Isobel M.
Callister, Thomas
author_facet Antonini, Fabio
Romero-Shaw, Isobel M.
Callister, Thomas
contents Stellar evolution theories predict a gap in the black hole birth mass spectrum as the result of pair instability processes in the cores of massive stars.This gap, however, is not seen in the binary black hole masses inferred from gravitational wave data. One explanation is that black holes form dynamically in dense star clusters where smaller black holes merge to form more massive black holes, populating the mass gap. We show that this model predicts a distribution of the effective and precessing spin parameters, $χ_{\rm eff}$ and $χ_{\rm p}$, within the mass gap that is insensitive to assumptions about black hole natal spins and other astrophysical parameters. We analyze the distribution of $χ_{\rm eff}$ as a function of primary mass for the black hole binaries in the third gravitational wave transient catalog. We infer the presence of a high-mass and isotropically spinning population of black holes that is consistent with hierarchical formation in dense star clusters and a pair-instability mass gap with a lower edge at $44^{+6}_{-4} M_\odot$. We compute a Bayes factor $\mathcal{B}>10^4$ relative to models that do not allow for a high-mass population with a distinct $χ_{\rm eff}$ distribution.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_19044
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Star Cluster Population of High Mass Black Hole Mergers in Gravitational Wave Data
Antonini, Fabio
Romero-Shaw, Isobel M.
Callister, Thomas
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Stellar evolution theories predict a gap in the black hole birth mass spectrum as the result of pair instability processes in the cores of massive stars.This gap, however, is not seen in the binary black hole masses inferred from gravitational wave data. One explanation is that black holes form dynamically in dense star clusters where smaller black holes merge to form more massive black holes, populating the mass gap. We show that this model predicts a distribution of the effective and precessing spin parameters, $χ_{\rm eff}$ and $χ_{\rm p}$, within the mass gap that is insensitive to assumptions about black hole natal spins and other astrophysical parameters. We analyze the distribution of $χ_{\rm eff}$ as a function of primary mass for the black hole binaries in the third gravitational wave transient catalog. We infer the presence of a high-mass and isotropically spinning population of black holes that is consistent with hierarchical formation in dense star clusters and a pair-instability mass gap with a lower edge at $44^{+6}_{-4} M_\odot$. We compute a Bayes factor $\mathcal{B}>10^4$ relative to models that do not allow for a high-mass population with a distinct $χ_{\rm eff}$ distribution.
title A Star Cluster Population of High Mass Black Hole Mergers in Gravitational Wave Data
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.19044