McFACTS II: Mass Ratio--Effective Spin Relationship of Black Hole Mergers in the AGN Channel

Abstract

We use the Monte Carlo For AGN (active galactic nucleus) Channel Testing and Simulation (McFACTS, https://www.github.com/mcfacts/mcfacts) code to study the effect of AGN disk and nuclear star cluster parameters on predicted mass distributions for LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) compact binaries forming in AGN disks. The assumptions we vary include the black hole (BH) initial mass function, disk model, disk size, disk lifetime, and the prograde-to-retrograde fraction of newly formed black hole binaries. Broadly we find that dense, moderately short-lived AGN disks are preferred for producing a $(q,{\chi }_{\mathrm{eff}})$ anti-correlation like those identified from existing gravitational wave (GW) observations. Additionally, a BH initial mass function (MF $\propto M^{-2}$) is preferred over a more top-heavy MF ($M^{-1}$). The preferred fraction of prograde-to-retrograde is $>90\%$, to produce results consistent with observations.

Submitted to ApJ, 18 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• On the Astrophysical Origin of Binary Black Hole Subpopulations: A Tale of Three Channels?
• Reassessing the Spin of Second-born Black Holes in Coalescing Binary Black Holes and Its Connection to the chi_eff-q Correlation
• The role of migration traps in the formation of binary black holes in AGN disks
• Population Properties of Binary Black Holes with Eccentricity