Detection of LIGO-Virgo binary black holes in the pair-instability mass gap

Abstract

By probing the population of binary black hole (BBH) mergers detected by LIGO-Virgo, we can infer properties about the underlying black hole formation channels. A mechanism known as pair-instability (PI) supernova is expected to prevent the formation of black holes from stellar collapse with mass greater than $\sim 40-65M_{\odot }$ and less than $\sim 120M_{\odot }$. Any BBH merger detected by LIGO-Virgo with a component black hole in this gap, known as the PI mass gap, likely originated from an alternative formation channel. Here, we firmly establish GW190521 as an outlier to the stellar-mass BBH population if the PI mass gap begins at or below $65M_{\odot }$. In addition, for a PI lower boundary of $40-50M_{\odot }$, we find it unlikely that the remaining distribution of detected BBH events, excluding GW190521, is consistent with the stellar-mass population.

arXiv comment10 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables

References in corpus (89)

• XGBoost: A Scalable Tree Boosting System
• SciPy 1.0--Fundamental Algorithms for Scientific Computing in Python
• Array Programming with NumPy
• Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters
• On the variation of the Initial Mass Function
• Advanced Virgo: a 2nd generation interferometric gravitational wave detector
• GWTC-1: A Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog of Compact Binary Mergers Observed by LIGO and Virgo during the First and Second Observing Runs
• Advanced LIGO
• GWTC-2: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo During the First Half of the Third Observing Run
• How Massive Single Stars End their Life
• Mass-loss predictions for O and B stars as a function of metallicity
• The Nucleosynthetic Signature of Population III
• GW190521: A Binary Black Hole Merger with a Total Mass of $150M_{\odot }$
• Compact Remnant Mass Function: Dependence on the Explosion Mechanism and Metallicity
• Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis Version 2.1: construction, observational verification and new results
• Binary Black Hole Population Properties Inferred from the First and Second Observing Runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo
• The formation of massive black holes through collision runaway in dense young star clusters
• Pulsational Pair-Instability Supernovae
• Pulsational pair instability as an explanation for the most luminous supernovae
• Properties and astrophysical implications of the 150 Msun binary black hole merger GW190521
• On The Maximum Mass of Stellar Black Holes
• An improved effective-one-body model of spinning, nonprecessing binary black holes for the era of gravitational-wave astrophysics with advanced detectors
• Presupernova evolution and explosive nucleosynthesis of rotating massive stars in the metallicity range -3 <=[Fe/H]<= 0
• Rapid and Bright Stellar-mass Binary Black Hole Mergers in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Open data from the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo
• Production of Intermediate-Mass Black Holes in Globular Clusters
• Method for detection and reconstruction of gravitational wave transients with networks of advanced detectors
• An introduction to Bayesian inference in gravitational-wave astronomy: parameter estimation, model selection, and hierarchical models
• Double Compact Objects II: Cosmological Merger Rates
• Extracting distribution parameters from multiple uncertain observations with selection biases
• The Effect of Pair-Instability Mass Loss on Black Hole Mergers
• The evolutionary roads leading to low effective spins, high black hole masses, and O1/O2 rates of LIGO/Virgo binary black holes
• Intermediate mass black holes in AGN disks: I. Production & Growth
• Very massive stars, pair-instability supernovae and intermediate-mass black holes with the SEVN code
• Binary Mergers and Growth of Black Holes in Dense Star Clusters
• GW190521: orbital eccentricity and signatures of dynamical formation in a binary black hole merger signal
• Merging black hole binaries: the effects of progenitor's metallicity, mass-loss rate and Eddington factor
• Coherent method for detection of gravitational wave bursts
• On stellar-mass black hole mergers in AGN disks detectable with LIGO
• Hierarchical Black Hole Mergers in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Massive black hole binaries from runaway collisions: the impact of metallicity
• Merging black hole binaries with the SEVN code
• Merging black holes in young star clusters
• Measuring the binary black hole mass spectrum with an astrophysically motivated parameterization
• MOCCA Code for Star Cluster Simulations - IV. A new Scenario for Intermediate Mass Black Hole Formation in Globular Clusters
• The Evolution of Massive Helium Stars Including Mass Loss
• Migration Traps in Disks Around Supermassive Black Holes
• Spin-Orbit Misalignment in Close Binaries with Two Compact Objects
• Constraints from gravitational wave detections of binary black hole mergers on the ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}{\left(\alpha ,\gamma \right)}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ rate
• Phenomenological model for the gravitational-wave signal from precessing binary black holes with two-spin effects
• Compact Binary Coalescences in the Band of Ground-based Gravitational-Wave Detectors
• The Pair-Instability Mass Gap for Black Holes
• Intermediate mass black holes in AGN disks II. Model predictions & observational constraints
• AGN Disks Harden the Mass Distribution of Stellar-mass Binary Black Hole Mergers
• Ultra-luminous X-ray sources and remnants of massive metal-poor stars
• Formation of GW190521 from stellar evolution: the impact of the hydrogen-rich envelope, dredge-up and ${}^{12}$C($\alpha$, $\gamma$)${}^{16}$O rate on the pair-instability black hole mass gap
• Evidence for hierarchical black hole mergers in the second LIGO--Virgo gravitational-wave catalog
• Monte-Carlo simulations of black hole mergers in AGN disks: Low ${\chi }_{\mathrm{eff}}$ mergers and predictions for LIGO
• Populating the upper black hole mass gap through stellar collisions in young star clusters
• Impact of the Rotation and Compactness of Progenitors on the Mass of Black Holes
• The GW190521 Mass Gap Event and the Primordial Black Hole Scenario
• Mass-gap Mergers in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Binary black holes in the pair-instability mass gap
• Low metallicity and ultra-luminous X-ray sources in the Cartwheel galaxy
• Minding the gap: GW190521 as a straddling binary
• The Black Hole Mass Function from Gravitational Wave Measurements
• On the Origin of GW190521-like events from repeated black hole mergers in star clusters
• Repeated mergers and ejection of black holes within nuclear star clusters
• Mass ejection by pulsational pair instability in very massive stars and implications for luminous supernovae
• Intermediate-mass Black Holes from High Massive-star Binary Fractions in Young Star Clusters
• The most ordinary formation of the most unusual double black hole merger
• Dynamics of stellar black holes in young star clusters with different metallicities - I. Implications for X-ray binaries
• The Most Massive Binary Black Hole Detections and the Identification of Population Outliers
• Formation of GW190521 via gas accretion onto Population III stellar black hole remnants born in high-redshift minihalos
• Black Hole Formation in the Lower Mass Gap through Mergers and Accretion in AGN Disks
• Two-Dimensional Simulations of Pulsational Pair-Instability Supernovae
• Very Massive Stars in the Local Universe
• Constraining the fraction of binary black holes formed in isolation and young star clusters with gravitational-wave data
• The Deaths of Very Massive Stars
• The Origin of inequality: isolated formation of a 30+10Msun binary black-hole merger
• Eccentricity Estimate for Black Hole Mergers with Numerical Relativity Simulations
• Find the Gap: Black Hole Population Analysis with an Astrophysically Motivated Mass Function
• GW170817A as a Hierarchical Black Hole Merger
• Poking Holes: Looking for Gaps in LIGO/Virgo's Black Hole Population
• Optimization of model independent gravitational wave search using machine learning
• Observing an intermediate mass black hole GW190521 with minimal assumptions
• Reconstruction of Chirp Mass in the Search of Compact Binaries
• Have hierarchical three-body mergers been detected by LIGO/Virgo?
• Data Quality Studies of Enhanced Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Unveiling the merger structure of black hole binaries in generic planar orbits
• Gravitational Waves from Double White Dwarfs as probes of the Milky Way
• Probing Extremal Gravitational-Wave Events with Coarse-Grained Likelihoods
• Search for gravitational-wave bursts in the third Advanced LIGO-Virgo run with coherent WaveBurst enhanced by Machine Learning
• Binary black hole mergers from young massive clusters in the pair-instability supernova mass gap
• Search for binary black hole mergers in the third observing run of Advanced LIGO-Virgo using coherent WaveBurst enhanced with machine learning
• Gravitational waves from mergers of Population III binary black holes: roles played by two evolution channels
• Determining the Hubble Constant with AGN-assisted Black Hole Mergers