Merger rate density of stellar-mass binary black holes from young massive clusters, open clusters, and isolated binaries: comparisons with LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA results

Abstract

I investigate the roles of cluster dynamics and massive binary evolution in producing stellar-remnant binary black hole (BBH) mergers over the cosmic time. To that end, dynamical BBH mergers are obtained from long-term direct N-body evolutionary models of $\sim 10^4{M}_{\odot }$, pc-scale young massive clusters (YMC) evolving into moderate-mass open clusters (OC). Fast evolutionary models of massive isolated binaries (IB) yield BBHs from binary evolution. Population synthesis in a Model Universe is then performed, taking into account observed cosmic star-formation and enrichment histories, to obtain BBH-merger yields from these two channels observable at the present day and over cosmic time. The merging BBH populations from the two channels are combined by applying a proof-of-concept Bayesian regression chain, taking into account observed differential intrinsic BBH merger rate densities from the second gravitational-wave transient catalogue (GWTC-2). The analysis estimates an OB-star binary fraction of $f_{\mathrm{Obin}}\gtrsim 90$% and a YMC formation efficiency of $f_{\mathrm{YMC}}\sim 10^{-2}$, being consistent with recent optical observations and large scale structure formation simulations. The corresponding combined Model Universe present-day, differential intrinsic BBH merger rate density and the cosmic evolution of BBH merger rate density both agree well with those from GWTC-2. The analysis also suggests that despite significant 'dynamical mixing' at low redshifts, BBH mergers at high redshifts ($z_{\mathrm{event}}\gtrsim 1$) could still be predominantly determined by binary-evolution physics. Caveats in the present approach and future improvements are discussed.

20 pages, 12 figures. Moderate changes in results; main conclusions unchanged. Accepted for publication as a Regular Article in Phys. Rev. D

References in corpus (21)

• Advanced Virgo: a 2nd generation interferometric gravitational wave detector
• Cosmic Star Formation History
• Advanced LIGO
• GW190814: Gravitational Waves from the Coalescence of a 23 M${}_{\odot }$ Black Hole with a 2.6 M${}_{\odot }$ Compact Object
• Observation of gravitational waves from two neutron star-black hole coalescences
• The Effect of Pair-Instability Mass Loss on Black Hole Mergers
• MOCCA-SURVEY Database I: Coalescing Binary Black Holes Originating From Globular Clusters
• Metallicity Evolution of Damped Lyman-alpha Systems out to z~5
• One Channel to Rule Them All? Constraining the Origins of Binary Black Holes using Multiple Formation Pathways
• Merging black hole binaries: the effects of progenitor's metallicity, mass-loss rate and Eddington factor
• Merging black holes in young star clusters
• The mass function of young star clusters in spiral galaxies
• Implementing Few-Body Algorithmic Regularization with Post-Newtonian Terms
• Stellar-mass black holes in young massive and open stellar clusters and their role in gravitational-wave generation
• Binary Black Hole Formation with Detailed Modeling: Stable Mass Transfer Leads to Lower Merger Rates
• Intermediate-mass Black Holes from High Massive-star Binary Fractions in Young Star Clusters
• Modelling Neutron Star-Black Hole Binaries: Future Pulsar Surveys and Gravitational Wave Detectors
• Constraining the Black Hole Initial Mass Function with LIGO/VIRGO Observations
• The time delay distribution and formation metallicity of LIGO-Virgo's binary black holes
• The Observed Rate of Binary Black Hole Mergers can be Entirely Explained by Globular Clusters
• Stellar-mass black holes in young massive and open stellar clusters V: comparisons with LIGO-Virgo merger rate densities

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Evidence for eccentricity in the population of binary black holes observed by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA
• The multiplicity fraction in 202 open clusters from Gaia
• Binary black hole mergers from young massive clusters in the pair-instability supernova mass gap
• Exploring compact binary populations with the Einstein Telescope
• Symmetry breaking in merging binary black holes from young massive clusters and isolated binaries
• The GW-Universe Toolbox II: constraining the binary black hole population with second and third generation detectors
• X-ray emission from helium star+black hole binaries as probes of tidally induced spin-up of second-born black holes
• Mass Distribution of Binary Black Hole Mergers from Young and Old Dense Star Clusters
• MOCCA-Survey Database: Extra Galactic Globular Clusters. III. The population of black holes in Milky Way and Andromeda-like galaxies
• Evidence for Three Subpopulations of Merging Binary Black Holes at Different Primary Masses