New gravitational-wave data support a bimodal black-hole mass distribution
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866908508405891072 |
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| author | Willcox, R. Schneider, F. R. N. Laplace, E. Podsiadlowski, Ph. Maltsev, K. Mandel, I. Marchant, P. Sana, H. Li, T. Hertog, T. |
| author_facet | Willcox, R. Schneider, F. R. N. Laplace, E. Podsiadlowski, Ph. Maltsev, K. Mandel, I. Marchant, P. Sana, H. Li, T. Hertog, T. |
| contents | Detailed stellar evolution and supernova models yield a bimodal black-hole mass distribution with a narrow peak around 10 solar masses from stars within a narrow range of progenitor properties and a second broader peak starting around 20 solar masses from very massive progenitors. This bimodal black-hole mass distribution leads to a characteristic distribution of chirp masses of merging binary black holes, with two main peaks arising from the merger of two black holes where both come either from the low- or the high-mass peak and a smaller peak in between from the mixed merger of a low-mass and a high-mass black hole. We carry out a population synthesis study of binary black hole formation and compare the results to the observed chirp masses of gravitational-wave events. We find that only the bimodal black-hole mass prescription is able to reproduce the structure of peaks and gaps in the observed chirp-mass distribution, which is not matched by predictions from other remnant mass prescriptions in the literature. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_20787 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | New gravitational-wave data support a bimodal black-hole mass distribution Willcox, R. Schneider, F. R. N. Laplace, E. Podsiadlowski, Ph. Maltsev, K. Mandel, I. Marchant, P. Sana, H. Li, T. Hertog, T. High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Detailed stellar evolution and supernova models yield a bimodal black-hole mass distribution with a narrow peak around 10 solar masses from stars within a narrow range of progenitor properties and a second broader peak starting around 20 solar masses from very massive progenitors. This bimodal black-hole mass distribution leads to a characteristic distribution of chirp masses of merging binary black holes, with two main peaks arising from the merger of two black holes where both come either from the low- or the high-mass peak and a smaller peak in between from the mixed merger of a low-mass and a high-mass black hole. We carry out a population synthesis study of binary black hole formation and compare the results to the observed chirp masses of gravitational-wave events. We find that only the bimodal black-hole mass prescription is able to reproduce the structure of peaks and gaps in the observed chirp-mass distribution, which is not matched by predictions from other remnant mass prescriptions in the literature. |
| title | New gravitational-wave data support a bimodal black-hole mass distribution |
| topic | High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.20787 |