Gravitational Wave Sources from Pop III Stars are Preferentially Located within the Cores of their Host Galaxies

Abstract

The detection of gravitational waves (GWs) generated by merging black holes has recently opened up a new observational window into the Universe. The mass of the black holes in the first and third LIGO detections, ($36-29{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$ and $32-19{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$), suggests low-metallicity stars as their most likely progenitors. Based on high-resolution N-body simulations, coupled with state-of-the-art metal enrichment models, we find that the remnants of Pop III stars are preferentially located within the cores of galaxies. The probability of a GW signal to be generated by Pop III stars reaches $\sim 90\%$ at $\sim 0.5\mathrm{kpc}$ from the galaxy center, compared to a benchmark value of $\sim 5\%$ outside the core. The predicted merger rates inside bulges is $\sim 60\times {\beta }_{III}\mathrm{Gp}{\mathrm{c}}^{-3}\mathrm{y}{\mathrm{r}}^{-1}$ (${\beta }_{III}$ is the Pop III binarity fraction). To match the $90\%$ credible range of LIGO merger rates, we obtain: $0.03<{\beta }_{III}<0.88$. Future advances in GW observatories and the discovery of possible electromagnetic counterparts could allow the localization of such sources within their host galaxies. The preferential concentration of GW events within the bulge of galaxies would then provide an indirect proof for the existence of Pop III stars.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in MNRAS Letters

References in corpus (40)

• Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
• GW151226: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a 22-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence
• GW170104: Observation of a 50-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence at Redshift 0.2
• Binary interaction dominates the evolution of massive stars
• The Formation of the First Star in the Universe
• In the Beginning: The First Sources of Light and the Reionization of the Universe
• The Formation of the First Stars. I. The Primordial Star Forming Cloud
• The first gravitational-wave source from the isolated evolution of two 40-100 Msun stars
• Astrophysical Implications of the Binary Black-Hole Merger GW150914
• Binary Black Hole Mergers from Globular Clusters: Masses, Merger Rates, and the Impact of Stellar Evolution
• The Rate of Binary Black Hole Mergers Inferred from Advanced LIGO Observations Surrounding GW150914
• Fermi GBM Observations of LIGO Gravitational Wave event GW150914
• Multiscale Gaussian Random Fields for Cosmological Simulations
• Formation of the First Stars
• Evidence for PopIII-like stellar populations in the most luminous Lyman-$\alpha$ emitters at the epoch of re-ionisation: spectroscopic confirmation
• Possible Indirect Confirmation of the Existence of Pop III Massive Stars by Gravitational Wave
• The radial velocity dispersion profile of the Galactic halo: Constraining the density profile of the dark halo of the Milky Way
• BPASS predictions for Binary Black-Hole Mergers
• Building up the Population III initial mass function from cosmological initial conditions
• GCD+: A New Chemodynamical Approach to Modeling SNe and Chemical Enrichment
• Electromagnetic Counterparts to Black Hole Mergers Detected by LIGO
• Identifying Elusive Electromagnetic Counterparts to Gravitational Wave Mergers: an end-to-end simulation
• ARGOS IV: The Kinematics of the Milky Way Bulge
• Short Gamma-Ray Bursts from the Merger of Two Black Holes
• The Evolution of Galaxy Number Density at z < 8 and its Implications
• Constraining the Statistics of Population III Binaries
• Gravitational Waves from the Remnants of the First Stars
• Unveiling the first black holes with JWST: multi-wavelength spectral predictions
• Pre-Merger Localization of Gravitational-Wave Standard Sirens With LISA: Triggered Search for an Electromagnetic Counterpart
• First Stellar Binary Black Holes: Strongest Gravitational Wave Burst Sources
• Ultrafast Outflows from Black Hole Mergers with a Mini-Disk
• Hunting Black Holes with Gaia
• Mining the Galactic Halo for Very Metal-Poor Stars
• The Spatial Distribution of the Galactic First Stars I: High-Resolution N-body Approach
• The earliest stars and their relics in the Milky Way
• The nature of the Lyman Alpha Emitter CR7: a persisting puzzle
• Gravitational Waves from Binary Black Hole Mergers Inside of Stars
• LISA Detection of Binary Black Holes in the Milky Way Galaxy
• High redshift Lya emitters: clues on the Milky Way infancy
• On the Formation of Massive Primordial Stars

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Conditions for Optimal Growth of Black Hole Seeds
• Public Release of A-SLOTH: Ancient Stars and Local Observables by Tracing Halos
• Supermassive Black Holes in the Early Universe
• The energy distribution of the first supernovae
• Gravitational waves from mergers of Population III binary black holes: roles played by two evolution channels
• Footprints of population III stars in the gravitational-wave background
• On the dearth of C-enhanced metal-poor stars in the Galactic bulge