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Resolving the Stellar-Collapse and Hierarchical-Merger origins of the Coalescing Black Holes

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arxiv 2303.02973 v3 pith:GATFMY6J submitted 2023-03-06 astro-ph.HE gr-qc

classification astro-ph.HEgr-qc
keywords blackcoalescingholesmassodotpopulationspinbbhs
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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abstract

Spin and mass properties provide essential clues in distinguishing the origins of coalescing black holes (BHs). With a dedicated semiparametric population model for the coalescing binary black holes (BBHs), we identify two distinct categories of BHs among the GWTC-3 events, which is {favored over the one population scenario by} a logarithmic Bayes factor ($\ln\mathcal{B}$) of 7.5. One category, with a mass ranging from $\sim 25M_\odot$ to $\sim 80M_\odot$, is distinguished by the high spin magnitudes ($\sim0.75$) and consistent with the hierarchical merger origin. The other category, characterized by low spins, has a sharp mass cutoff at $\sim 40M_\odot$, which is natural for the stellar-collapse origin and in particular the pair-instability explosion of massive stars. We infer the local hierarchical merger rate density as $0.46^{+0.61}_{-0.24}~{\rm Gpc^{-3}yr^{-1}}$. Additionally, we find that a fraction of the BBHs has a cosine-spin-tilt-angle distribution concentrated preferentially around $1$, and the fully isotropic distribution for spin orientation is disfavored by a $\ln\mathcal{B}$ of -6.3, suggesting that the isolated field evolution channels are contributing to the total population.

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Forward citations

Cited by 9 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. High-mass binary black hole mergers from detailed binary evolution models

    astro-ph.HE 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Fully-conservative BH accretion is disfavored for high-mass BBH mergers; Eddington/GRRMHD accretion with kicks can match part of the LVK high-mass population but still needs another channel.

  2. Assessing the waveform systematics from parameter estimation to population inference with eccentricity

    astro-ph.HE 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Eccentric waveform-model differences, small per event, accumulate across the GWTC-4 catalog and alter inferred redshift evolution and effective-spin population distributions.

  3. Signatures of a subpopulation of hierarchical mergers in the GWTC-4 gravitational-wave dataset

    gr-qc 2026-01 unverdicted novelty 6.0 of 10

    Using a joint effective-spin and precession-spin model on 155 gravitational-wave events, the authors infer that the hierarchical (second-generation) merger fraction rises sharply above ~46 M_sun and peaks again near 1...

  4. A new group of low-spin $50-70M_\odot$ Black Holes and the high pair-instability mass cutoff

    astro-ph.HE 2025-10 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    GWTC-4.0 reveals low-spin black holes up to ~68.5 Msun, implying a higher pair-instability mass cutoff and a lower 12C(alpha,gamma)16O rate.

  5. Aligned Hierarchical Black Hole Mergers in Active-Galactic-Nuclei Disks Revealed by GWTC-4

    astro-ph.HE 2025-09 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    GWTC-4 reveals a high-spin, high-mass black hole subpopulation with spin-orbit alignment, interpreted as evidence for hierarchical mergers in AGN disks.

  6. The Long Road to Alignment: Measuring Black Hole Spin Orientation with Expanding Gravitational-Wave Datasets

    astro-ph.HE 2025-05 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Simulated gravitational-wave catalogs show spin-tilt peaks at alignment are hard to confirm even with 1500 events, while integrated tilt fractions are robust.

  7. The Hierarchical Merger Scenario for GW231123

    astro-ph.HE 2025-09 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    GW231123 is claimed to be a 2G+2G hierarchical merger, but only under the NRSur7dq4 waveform; the conclusion flips with IMRPhenomXO4a.

  8. Inferring the pair-instability mass gap from gravitational wave data

    astro-ph.HE 2025-06 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Non-parametric analysis of GWTC-3 finds a transition at roughly 46 solar masses above which the effective spin distribution broadens and becomes consistent with symmetry around zero, consistent with second-generation ...

  9. Binary Black Hole Phase Space Discovers the Signature of Pair Instability Supernovae Mass Gap

    astro-ph.HE 2025-09 reject novelty 4.0 of 10

    Applying a phase-space overlap method to GWTC-4, the paper claims first-generation black holes are truncated near 45.5 solar masses, but the cutoff follows from the assumed exponential mass prior rather than from the data.

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