Publications (47)
Wide binary pulsars from electron-capture supernovae
Simon Stevenson, Reinhold Willcox, Alejandro Vigna-Gomez +1
Neutron stars receive velocity kicks at birth in supernovae. Those formed in electron-capture supernovae from super asymptotic giant branch stars -- the lowest mass stars to end th…
The birth mass function of neutron stars
Zhi-Qiang You, Xingjiang Zhu, Xiaojin Liu +12
The birth mass function of neutron stars encodes rich information about supernova explosions, double star evolution, and properties of matter under extreme conditions. To date, it…
Accuracy of inference on the physics of binary evolution from gravitational-wave observations
Jim W. Barrett, Sebastian M. Gaebel, Coenraad J. Neijssel +5
The properties of the population of merging binary black holes encode some of the uncertain physics of the evolution of massive stars in binaries. The binary black hole merger rate…
On the formation history of Galactic double neutron stars
Alejandro Vigna-Gómez, Coenraad J. Neijssel, Simon Stevenson +9
Double neutron stars (DNSs) have been observed as Galactic radio pulsars, and the recent discovery of gravitational waves from the DNS merger GW170817 adds to the known DNS populat…
Model-independent inference on compact-binary observations
Ilya Mandel, Will M. Farr, Andrea Colonna +3
The recent advanced LIGO detections of gravitational waves from merging binary black holes enhance the prospect of exploring binary evolution via gravitational-wave observations of…
Uncovering Volatility Dynamics in Daily REIT Returns
John Cotter, Simon Stevenson
Using a time-varying approach, this paper examines the dynamics of volatility in the REIT sector. The results highlight the attractiveness and suitability of using GARCH based appr…
Formation of the first three gravitational-wave observations through isolated binary evolution
Simon Stevenson, Alejandro Vigna-Gómez, Ilya Mandel +4
During its first 4 months of taking data, Advanced LIGO has detected gravitational waves from two binary black hole mergers, GW150914 and GW151226, along with the statistically les…
Binary population synthesis of the Galactic canonical pulsar population
Yuzhe Song, Simon Stevenson, Debatri Chattopadhyay +2
Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars that emit radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio to gamma-rays. We use the rapid binary population synthesis suite COM…
Explaining the differences in massive star models from various simulations
Poojan Agrawal, Dorottya Szécsi, Simon Stevenson +2
The evolution of massive stars is the basis of several astrophysical investigations, from predicting gravitational-wave event rates to studying star-formation and stellar populatio…
Rapid stellar and binary population synthesis with COMPAS
Team COMPAS, :, Jeff Riley +23
Compact Object Mergers: Population Astrophysics and Statistics (COMPAS; https://compas.science) is a public rapid binary population synthesis code. COMPAS generates populations of…
Impact of Massive Binary Star and Cosmic Evolution on Gravitational Wave Observations I: Black Hole-Neutron Star Mergers
Floor S. Broekgaarden, Edo Berger, Coenraad J. Neijssel +7
Mergers of black hole-neutron star (BHNS) binaries have now been observed by GW detectors with the recent announcement of GW200105 and GW200115. Such observations not only provide…
The effect of the metallicity-specific star formation history on double compact object mergers
Coenraad J. Neijssel, Alejandro Vigna-Gómez, Simon Stevenson +7
We investigate the impact of uncertainty in the metallicity-specific star formation rate over cosmic time on predictions of the rates and masses of double compact object mergers ob…
STROOPWAFEL: Simulating rare outcomes from astrophysical populations, with application to gravitational-wave sources
Floor S. Broekgaarden, Stephen Justham, Selma E. de Mink +6
Gravitational-wave observations of double compact object (DCO) mergers are providing new insights into the physics of massive stars and the evolution of binary systems. Making the…
Are all models wrong? Falsifying binary formation models in gravitational-wave astronomy
Lachlan Passenger, Eric Thrane, Paul D. Lasky +3
As the catalogue of gravitational-wave transients grows, several entries appear "exceptional" within the population. Tipping the scales with a total mass of ,…
Hierarchical analysis of gravitational-wave measurements of binary black hole spin-orbit misalignments
Simon Stevenson, Christopher P. L. Berry, Ilya Mandel
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…
Distinguishing Spin-Aligned and Isotropic Black Hole Populations With Gravitational Waves
Will M. Farr, Simon Stevenson, M. Coleman Miller +3
The first direct detections of gravitational waves from merging binary black holes open a unique window into the binary black hole formation environment. One promising environmenta…
The fates of massive stars: exploring uncertainties in stellar evolution with METISSE
Poojan Agrawal, Jarrod Hurley, Simon Stevenson +2
In the era of advanced electromagnetic and gravitational wave detectors, it has become increasingly important to effectively combine and study the impact of stellar evolution on bi…
The impact of pair-instability mass loss on the binary black hole mass distribution
Simon Stevenson, Matthew Sampson, Jade Powell +4
A population of binary black hole mergers has now been observed in gravitational waves by Advanced LIGO and Virgo. The masses of these black holes appear to show evidence for a pil…
Multivariate Modeling of Daily REIT Volatility
John Cotter, Simon Stevenson
This paper examines volatility in REITs using a multivariate GARCH based model. The Multivariate VAR-GARCH technique documents the return and volatility linkages between REIT sub-s…
Constraints on Weak Supernova Kicks from Observed Pulsar Velocities
Reinhold Willcox, Ilya Mandel, Eric Thrane +3
Observations of binary pulsars and pulsars in globular clusters suggest that at least some pulsars must receive weak natal kicks at birth. If all pulsars received strong natal kick…
A subpopulation of low-mass, spinning black holes: signatures of dynamical assembly
Hui Tong, Thomas A. Callister, Maya Fishbach +5
Gravitational-wave observations of massive, rapidly spinning binary black holes mergers provide increasing evidence for the dynamical origin of some mergers. Previous studies have…
Modelling stellar evolution in mass-transferring binaries and gravitational-wave progenitors with METISSE
Poojan Agrawal, Jarrod Hurley, Simon Stevenson +3
Massive binaries are vital sources of various transient processes, including gravitational-wave mergers. However, large uncertainties in the evolution of massive stars, both physic…
Modeling Long Memory in REITs
John Cotter, Simon Stevenson
One stylized feature of financial volatility impacting the modeling process is long memory. This paper examines long memory for alternative risk measures, observed absolute and squ…
Strategy for identifying Vera C. Rubin Observatory kilonova candidates for targeted gravitational-wave searches
Simon Stevenson, Anais Möller, Jade Powell
Since the observation of the binary neutron star merger GW170817 and the associated kilonova AT2017gfo, the next joint gravitational-wave/optical kilonova has been highly anticipat…
A Trifecta of Modelling Tools: A Bayesian Binary Black Hole Model Selection combining Population Synthesis and Galaxy Formation Models
Liana Rauf, Cullan Howlett, Simon Stevenson +2
Gravitational waves (GWs) have revealed surprising properties of binary black hole (BBH) populations, but there is still mystery surrounding how these compact objects evolve. We ap…
Distinguishing compact binary population synthesis models using gravitational-wave observations of coalescing binary black holes
Simon Stevenson, Frank Ohme, Stephen Fairhurst
The coalescence of compact binaries containing neutron stars or black holes is one of the most promising signals for advanced ground-based laser interferometer gravitational-wave d…
Exploring the Parameter Space of Compact Binary Population Synthesis
Jim W. Barrett, Ilya Mandel, Coenraad J. Neijssel +2
As we enter the era of gravitational wave astronomy, we are beginning to collect observations which will enable us to explore aspects of astrophysics of massive stellar binaries wh…
A systematic study of super-Eddington layers in the envelopes of massive stars
Poojan Agrawal, Simon Stevenson, Dorottya Szécsi +1
The proximity to the Eddington luminosity has been attributed as the cause of several observed effects in massive stars. Computationally, if the luminosity carried through radiatio…
Detecting Double Neutron Stars with LISA
Mike Y. M. Lau, Ilya Mandel, Alejandro Vigna-Gómez +3
We estimate the properties of the double neutron star (DNS) population that will be observable by the planned space-based interferometer LISA. By following the gravitational radiat…
Signatures of mass ratio reversal in gravitational waves from merging binary black holes
Floor S. Broekgaarden, Simon Stevenson, Eric Thrane
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 firstbor…
The origin of spin in binary black holes: Predicting the distributions of the main observables of Advanced LIGO
Simone S. Bavera, Tassos Fragos, Ying Qin +7
We study the formation of coalescing binary black holes via the evolution of isolated field binaries that go through the common envelope phase in order to obtain the combined distr…
Modelling the formation of the first two neutron star-black hole mergers, GW200105 and GW200115: metallicity, chirp masses and merger remnant spins
Debatri Chattopadhyay, Simon Stevenson, Floor Broekgaarden +2
The two neutron star-black hole mergers (GW200105 and GW200115) observed in gravitational waves by advanced LIGO and Virgo, mark the first ever discovery of such binaries in nature…
Rapid stellar and binary population synthesis with COMPAS: methods paper II
Ilya Mandel, Jeff Riley, Adam Boesky +13
The COMPAS public rapid binary population synthesis code has undergone a number of key improvements since the original COMPAS methods paper (Team COMPAS: Riley et al., 2022) was pu…
Modelling Neutron Star-Black Hole Binaries: Future Pulsar Surveys and Gravitational Wave Detectors
Debatri Chattopadhyay, Simon Stevenson, Jarrod R. Hurley +2
Binaries comprised of a neutron star (NS) and a black hole (BH) have so far eluded observations as pulsars and with gravitational waves (GWs). We model the formation and evolution…
Formation of heavy double neutron stars I: Eddington-limited accretion for a 1.4 neutron star at solar metallicity
Ashwathi Nair, Simon Stevenson
More than 30 Galactic double neutron star (DNS) binaries have now been identified through radio pulsar timing. The 24 DNSs in the Galactic field with measured total masses lie in t…
Inference on gravitational waves from coalescences of stellar-mass compact objects and intermediate-mass black holes
Carl-Johan Haster, Zhilu Wang, Christopher P. L. Berry +3
Gravitational waves from coalescences of neutron stars or stellar-mass black holes into intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) of solar masses represent one of the exc…
Implications of modern mass-loss rates for massive stars
JD Merritt, Simon Stevenson, Andreas Sander +7
Massive stars lose a significant fraction of their mass through stellar winds at various stages of their lives, including on the main sequence, during the red supergiant phase, and…
Dynamical double black holes and their host cluster properties
Debatri Chattopadhyay, Jarrod Hurley, Simon Stevenson +1
We investigate the relationship between the global properties of star clusters and their double black hole (DBH) populations. We use the code {\tt NBODY6} to evolve a suite of star…
On the origin of GW190425
Isobel M Romero-Shaw, Nicholas Farrow, Simon Stevenson +2
The LIGO/Virgo collaborations recently announced the detection of a likely binary neutron star merger, GW190425. The total mass of GW190425 is significantly larger than the masses…
Modelling Double Neutron Stars: Radio and Gravitational Waves
Debatri Chattopadhyay, Simon Stevenson, Jarrod R. Hurley +2
We have implemented prescriptions for modelling pulsars in the rapid binary population synthesis code COMPAS. We perform a detailed analysis of the double neutron star (DNS) popula…
Luminous Red Novae: population models and future prospects
George Howitt, Simon Stevenson, Alejandro Vigna-Gómez +5
A class of optical transients known as Luminous Red Novae (LRNe) have recently been associated with mass ejections from binary stars undergoing common-envelope evolution. We use th…
Unmodelled Clustering Methods for Gravitational Wave Populations of Compact Binary Mergers
Jade Powell, Simon Stevenson, Ilya Mandel +1
The mass and spin distributions of compact binary gravitational-wave sources are currently uncertain due to complicated astrophysics involved in their formation. Multiple sub-popul…
Constraints on the contributions to the observed binary black hole population from individual evolutionary pathways in isolated binary evolution
Simon Stevenson, Teagan Clarke
Gravitational waves from merging binary black holes can be used to shed light on poorly understood aspects of massive binary stellar evolution, such as the evolution of massive sta…
Impact of Massive Binary Star and Cosmic Evolution on Gravitational Wave Observations II: Double Compact Object Rates and Properties
Floor S. Broekgaarden, Edo Berger, Simon Stevenson +9
Making the most of the rapidly increasing population of gravitational-wave detections of black hole (BH) and neutron star (NS) mergers requires comparing observations with populati…
Biases in estimates of black hole kicks from the spin distribution of binary black holes
Simon Stevenson
A population of more than 50 binary black hole mergers has now been observed by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave observatories. While neutron stars are known to have large vel…
Rapid localization and inference on compact binary coalescences with the Advanced LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA gravitational-wave detector network
Soichiro Morisaki, Rory Smith, Leo Tsukada +4
We present a rapid parameter estimation framework for compact binary coalescence (CBC) signals observed by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) detector network. The goal of our framework is…
Heavy double neutron stars: birth, mid-life and death
Shanika Galaudage, Christian Adamcewicz, Xing-Jiang Zhu +2
Radio pulsar observations probe the lives of Galactic double neutron-star (DNS) systems while gravitational waves enable us to study extragalactic DNS in their final moments. By co…