Does Matter Matter? Using the mass distribution to distinguish neutron stars and black holes

Abstract

Gravitational-wave detectors have opened a new window through which we can observe black holes (BHs) and neutron stars (NSs). Analyzing the 11 detections from LIGO/Virgo's first gravitational-wave catalog, GWTC-1, we investigate whether the power-law fit to the BH mass spectrum can also accommodate the binary neutron star (BNS) event GW170817, or whether we require an additional feature, such as a mass gap, in between the NS and BH populations. We find that with respect to the power-law fit to binary black hole (BBH) masses, GW170817 is an outlier at the 0.13\% level, suggesting a distinction between NS and BH masses. A single power-law fit across the entire mass range is in mild tension with: (a) the detection of one source in the BNS mass range ($\sim 1$--$2.5M_{\odot }$), (b) the absence of detections in the "mass-gap" range ($\sim 2.5$--$5M_{\odot }$), and (c) the detection of 10 sources in the BBH mass range ($\gtrsim 5M_{\odot }$). Instead, the data favor models with a feature between NS and BH masses, including a mass gap (Bayes factor of 4.6) and a break in the power law, with a steeper slope at NS masses compared to BH masses (91\% credibility). We estimate the merger rates of compact binaries based on our fit to the global mass distribution, finding ${\mathcal{R}}_{\mathrm{BNS}}=871_{-805}^{+3015}{\mathrm{Gpc}}^{-3}{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$ and ${\mathcal{R}}_{\mathrm{BBH}}=47.5_{-28.8}^{+57.9}{\mathrm{Gpc}}^{-3}{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$. We conclude that, even in the absence of any prior knowledge of the difference between NSs and BHs, the gravitational-wave data alone already suggest two distinct populations of compact objects.

16 pages, including 2 page appendix, 7 figures. Updated to match published version