GW190412 as a Third-Generation Black Hole Merger from a Super Star Cluster

Abstract

We explore the possibility that GW190412, a binary black hole merger with a non-equal-mass ratio and significantly spinning primary, was formed through repeated black hole mergers in a dense super star cluster. Using a combination of semi-analytic prescriptions for the remnant spin and recoil kick of black hole mergers, we show that the mass ratio and spin of GW190412 are consistent with a binary black hole whose primary component has undergone two successive mergers from a population of $\sim 10M_{\odot }$ black holes in a high-metallicity environment. We then explore the production of GW190412-like analogs in the CMC Cluster Catalog, a grid of 148 $N$-body star cluster models, as well as a new model, behemoth, with nearly $10^7$ particles and initial conditions taken from a cosmological MHD simulation of galaxy formation. We show that the production of binaries with GW190412-like masses and spins is dominated by massive super star clusters with high metallicities and large central escape speeds. While many are observed in the local universe, our results suggest that a careful treatment of these massive clusters, many of which may have been disrupted before the present day, is necessary to characterize the production of unique gravitational-wave events produced through dynamics.

9 pages, 4 figures, matches version accepted by ApJL

References in corpus (17)

• Advanced Virgo: a 2nd generation interferometric gravitational wave detector
• Large Merger Recoils and Spin Flips From Generic Black-Hole Binaries
• Gravitational waves from scattering of stellar-mass black holes in galactic nuclei
• Total recoil: the maximum kick from nonspinning black-hole binary inspiral
• Inspiral, merger and ringdown of unequal mass black hole binaries: a multipolar analysis
• Slowing the Spins of Stellar Cores
• MOCCA-SURVEY Database I: Coalescing Binary Black Holes Originating From Globular Clusters
• The Dynamical Evolution of Stellar Black Holes in Globular Clusters
• Mergers of Stellar-Mass Black Holes in Nuclear Star Clusters
• The final mass and spin of black hole mergers
• AGN Disks Harden the Mass Distribution of Stellar-mass Binary Black Hole Mergers
• On the Rate of Neutron Star Binary Mergers from Globular Clusters
• Further insight into gravitational recoil
• Super Star Cluster Velocity Dispersions and Virial Masses in the M82 Nuclear Starburst
• Dynamical Formation of Low-Mass Merging Black Hole Binaries like GW151226
• Final spins from the merger of precessing binary black holes
• An alternative interpretation of GW190412 as a binary black hole merger with a rapidly spinning secondary

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Primordial Black Holes Confront LIGO/Virgo data: Current situation
• Mass-gap Mergers in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Stellar Merger Scenario for Black Holes in the Pair-instability Gap
• You Can't Always Get What You Want: The Impact of Prior Assumptions on Interpreting GW190412
• Impact of astrophysical binary coalescence timescales on the rate of lensed gravitational wave events
• Compact Binary Coalescences: Astrophysical Processes and Lessons Learned
• Black Hole Mergers from Star Clusters with Top-Heavy Initial Mass Functions
• Astrophysical implications of GW190412 as a remnant of a previous black-hole merger
• MOCCA SURVEY Database I: Binary Black Hole Mergers from Globular Clusters with Intermediate Mass Black Holes
• Reconstructing the Genealogy of LIGO-Virgo Black Holes
• Resolving Black Hole Family Issues Among the Massive Ancestors of Very High-Spin Gravitational-Wave Events Like GW231123
• Implications of recoil kicks for black hole mergers from LIGO/Virgo catalogs
• Shadows of the Colossus: Hierarchical Black Hole Mergers in a 10-million-body Globular Cluster Simulation
• Recent LIGO-Virgo discoveries
• Analysis and simulations of binary black hole merger spins -- the question of spin-axis tossing at black hole formation
• The Role of High-mass Stellar Binaries in the Formation of High-mass Black Holes in Dense Star Clusters