Binary Black Hole Phase Space Discovers the Signature of Pair Instability Supernovae Mass Gap
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866918139088863232 |
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| author | Afroz, Samsuzzaman Mukherjee, Suvodip |
| author_facet | Afroz, Samsuzzaman Mukherjee, Suvodip |
| contents | The rapidly expanding catalog of gravitational-wave detections provides a powerful probe of the formation history of compact binaries across cosmic time. In this work, we extend the Binary Compact Object (BCO) phase-space framework to the full set of events in the GWTC-4 catalog to map the observed binary formation scenarios in a data-driven way. Applying this framework, we identify distinct regions of phase-space associated with different channels and discover for the first time a unique mass-cutoff scale in a data-driven way. The mapping of these on different formation channels reveals a population of first-generation (1G) black holes sharply truncated at approximately 45.5 $M_\odot$, consistent with the theoretically predicted pair-instability supernova (PISN) mass gap. These findings demonstrate the capability of the BCO phase-space to disentangle overlapping formation pathways, establish robust connections between gravitational-wave observations and binary evolution, and highlight the potential of upcoming observing runs to reveal rare populations and exotic origins. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_09123 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Binary Black Hole Phase Space Discovers the Signature of Pair Instability Supernovae Mass Gap Afroz, Samsuzzaman Mukherjee, Suvodip High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics The rapidly expanding catalog of gravitational-wave detections provides a powerful probe of the formation history of compact binaries across cosmic time. In this work, we extend the Binary Compact Object (BCO) phase-space framework to the full set of events in the GWTC-4 catalog to map the observed binary formation scenarios in a data-driven way. Applying this framework, we identify distinct regions of phase-space associated with different channels and discover for the first time a unique mass-cutoff scale in a data-driven way. The mapping of these on different formation channels reveals a population of first-generation (1G) black holes sharply truncated at approximately 45.5 $M_\odot$, consistent with the theoretically predicted pair-instability supernova (PISN) mass gap. These findings demonstrate the capability of the BCO phase-space to disentangle overlapping formation pathways, establish robust connections between gravitational-wave observations and binary evolution, and highlight the potential of upcoming observing runs to reveal rare populations and exotic origins. |
| title | Binary Black Hole Phase Space Discovers the Signature of Pair Instability Supernovae Mass Gap |
| topic | High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.09123 |