{"paper":{"title":"Massquerade: Impacts of Mass Ratio Reversals on Binary Black Hole Merger Rates and Mass Distributions","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["astro-ph.GA","astro-ph.SR"],"primary_cat":"astro-ph.HE","authors_text":"Amedeo Romagnolo, Floor Broekgaarden, Kyle A. Rocha, Manasvini Komandur, Melanie Santiago, Sasha Levina, Tyler B. Smith","submitted_at":"2026-05-20T18:00:01Z","abstract_excerpt":"We investigate the role of mass ratio reversal (MRR), in which the initially less massive star in a binary forms the more massive compact object, in shaping the astrophysical binary black hole (BBH) merger rate and mass distribution inferred by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA, comparing simulation outcomes from population synthesis frameworks COMPAS and SEVN. We find that the observational imprint of MRR differs qualitatively between the two models. In COMPAS, MRR systems dominate the merger rate density at high primary masses ( $\\gtrsim$ 12 M$_\\odot$), high secondary masses ( $\\gtrsim$ 20 M$_\\odot$), and hi"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2605.21580","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2605.21580/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}