Millicharged particles weaken pulsational pair-instability in massive stars, shifting the lower edge of the black hole mass gap upward and turning gravitational wave observations into a probe for particles with masses 35-200 keV and charges 10^{-10} to 10^{-9}.
The chemically homogeneous evolutionary channel for binary black hole mergers: rates and properties of gravitational-wave events detectable by advanced LIGO
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abstract
We explore the predictions for detectable gravitational-wave signals from merging binary black holes formed through chemically homogeneous evolution in massive short-period stellar binaries. We find that $\sim 500$ events per year could be detected with advanced ground-based detectors operating at full sensitivity. We analyze the distribution of detectable events, and conclude that there is a very strong preference for detecting events with nearly equal components (mass ratio $>0.66$ at 90\% confidence in our default model) and high masses (total source-frame mass between $57$ and $103\, M_\odot$ at 90\% confidence). We consider multiple alternative variations to analyze the sensitivity to uncertainties in the evolutionary physics and cosmological parameters, and conclude that while the rates are sensitive to assumed variations, the mass distributions are robust predictions. Finally, we consider the recently reported results of the analysis of the first 16 double-coincident days of the O1 LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) observing run, and find that this formation channel is fully consistent with the inferred parameters of the GW150914 binary black hole detection and the inferred merger rate.
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Mass ratio reversals produce qualitatively different contributions to BBH merger rates and masses in COMPAS versus SEVN simulations, with core-growth dominating and most systems arising from massive low-metallicity progenitors.
Bayesian inference on LVK O1-O3 events with eccentric aligned-spin waveforms yields log10 Bayes factors of 1.77-4.75 favoring eccentricity for GW200129, GW190701 and GW200208_22, and >99.5% probability that at least one of 57 events is eccentric under an astrophysically motivated rate prior.
GWTC-2.1 adds eight new high-significance compact binary coalescence events to the prior catalog, extending the observed black hole mass range and including candidates inside the pair-instability mass gap.
citing papers explorer
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The Black Hole Mass Gap as a New Probe of Millicharged Particles
Millicharged particles weaken pulsational pair-instability in massive stars, shifting the lower edge of the black hole mass gap upward and turning gravitational wave observations into a probe for particles with masses 35-200 keV and charges 10^{-10} to 10^{-9}.
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Massquerade: Impacts of Mass Ratio Reversals on Binary Black Hole Merger Rates and Mass Distributions
Mass ratio reversals produce qualitatively different contributions to BBH merger rates and masses in COMPAS versus SEVN simulations, with core-growth dominating and most systems arising from massive low-metallicity progenitors.
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Evidence for eccentricity in the population of binary black holes observed by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA
Bayesian inference on LVK O1-O3 events with eccentric aligned-spin waveforms yields log10 Bayes factors of 1.77-4.75 favoring eccentricity for GW200129, GW190701 and GW200208_22, and >99.5% probability that at least one of 57 events is eccentric under an astrophysically motivated rate prior.
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GWTC-2.1: Deep Extended Catalog of Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo During the First Half of the Third Observing Run
GWTC-2.1 adds eight new high-significance compact binary coalescence events to the prior catalog, extending the observed black hole mass range and including candidates inside the pair-instability mass gap.