Pith. sign in

REVIEW 3 major objections 6 minor 133 references

Super-Eddington accretion does not suppress high-mass binary black hole mergers, but fully conservative accretion is disfavored by joint mass, mass-ratio, and spin data.

Reviewed by Pith at T0; open to challenge. T0 means a machine referee read the full paper against a public rubric. the ladder, T0–T4 →

T0 review · grok-4.5

2026-07-31 22:04 UTC pith:RVDND4TW

load-bearing objection Solid POSYDON study that cleanly kills fully-conservative accretion for high-mass BBHs; the residual “Eddington/GRRMHD + kicks still cover part of the locus” claim is softer once their own CCSN prior is imposed. the 3 major comments →

arxiv 2607.27962 v1 pith:RVDND4TW submitted 2026-07-30 astro-ph.HE astro-ph.SR

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

classification astro-ph.HE astro-ph.SR
keywords binary black holesgravitational wavespair-instability mass gapsuper-Eddington accretionstable mass transfernatal kickseffective spinisolated binary evolution
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved

The pith

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

Gravitational-wave catalogs show binary black hole mergers with primary masses above about 40 solar masses, some inside the expected pair-instability gap, with flatter mass ratios and a broader effective-spin distribution than lower-mass systems. This paper asks whether isolated binaries can make that population if the first-born black hole accretes above the Eddington limit during stable mass transfer. Using detailed binary-evolution grids, the authors vary accretion efficiency from Eddington-limited through a magnetohydrodynamics-informed rate to fully conservative transfer, and they also vary natal kick strength. They find that super-Eddington accretion does not shut off high-mass mergers; fully conservative transfer even raises the rate, but it locks in a strong effective-spin peak near 0.6 and a sharp mass-ratio peak near 0.5 that observations do not favor. Milder accretion plus kicks can match primary mass and mass ratio and can populate some negative effective spins, yet still cannot explain the full negative-spin fraction or high secondary spins, so another channel is still required.

Core claim

A joint comparison of primary mass, mass ratio, and effective spin shows that fully conservative black-hole accretion cannot be the dominant formation path for high-mass binary black hole mergers: it overproduces systems with effective spin near 0.6 and mass ratio near 0.5. Eddington-limited and GRRMHD-informed accretion remain compatible with the observed primary-mass and mass-ratio shapes if natal kicks are allowed, but even then isolated evolution only accounts for part of the high-mass population and needs an extra channel for the high fraction of negative effective spins and high secondary spins. Super-Eddington accretion itself does not suppress the high-mass merger rate in these detai

What carries the argument

POSYDON populations built from detailed MESA binary grids at eight metallicities, with three black-hole accretion efficiencies (Eddington-limited, GRRMHD-informed ~10–30 percent, and fully conservative) plus three natal-kick prescriptions, compared in one, two, and three dimensions to the binned Gaussian-process inference of GWTC-5.0 systems with primary mass above 39.7 solar masses.

Load-bearing premise

The models need high-mass black holes to receive substantial natal kicks that are not scaled down with mass or fallback, even though full-fallback progenitors are usually expected to get only tiny neutrino recoils.

What would settle it

A larger high-mass gravitational-wave sample that either (a) shows a persistent effective-spin peak near 0.6 and a sharp mass-ratio peak near 0.5 under fully conservative-like accretion, or (b) keeps a large negative-effective-spin fraction while independent evidence rules out strong kicks for black holes above ~40 solar masses, would decide whether the paper’s joint disfavor of fully conservative isolated evolution and its call for an extra channel stand.

Watch this falsifier — get emailed when new claim-graph text bears on it.

If this is right

  • Fully conservative black-hole accretion is disfavored as the main channel for mergers with primary mass above ~40 solar masses.
  • Eddington-limited or modestly super-Eddington accretion plus kicks can supply only part of the high-mass rate, mass-ratio, and spin morphology.
  • An additional formation channel is still required for the high fraction of negative effective spins and high secondary black-hole spins.
  • Detailed Case A mass-transfer modeling reverses earlier rapid-synthesis claims that super-Eddington accretion suppresses Hubble-time mergers.
  • Joint primary-mass, mass-ratio, and effective-spin constraints are stronger discriminants of accretion and kick physics than any single marginal alone.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

  • If core-collapse theory continues to forbid strong kicks above ~40 solar masses, the remaining negative-effective-spin and high-precession systems become a nearly direct count of non-isolated (or spin-tossing) contribution in that mass range.
  • A confirmed flat or high secondary-spin distribution above 40 solar masses would be hard for any isolated super-Eddington channel in these models, since secondaries stay near spin ~0.1.
  • Rate overprediction relative to the inferred high-mass density can be traded against uncertain high-redshift low-metallicity star formation, so shape mismatches in spin and mass ratio are the firmer constraints than absolute rate.
  • Future catalogs that resolve whether the primary-mass distribution is a plateau or a power-law decline below the pair-instability edge would further pin down kick strength in the isolated channel.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit.

Referee Report

3 major / 6 minor

Summary. This paper uses POSYDON detailed binary grids to ask whether super-Eddington accretion during stable mass transfer can produce the observed high-mass (M1≳40 M⊙) BBH population. Three BH accretion efficiencies (Eddington-limited, GRRMHD-informed, fully conservative) and three natal-kick prescriptions (none, low, normal; the latter two unscaled by mass/fallback) are compared to the BGP posterior from GWTC-5.0 in M1, q, and χ_eff. The authors find that super-Eddington accretion does not suppress high-mass mergers in POSYDON; fully-conservative accretion produces a kick-resistant χ_eff≈0.6 peak and a sharp q∼0.5–0.6 peak disfavored by the data; and Eddington/GRRMHD models can match parts of the M1 and q distributions but need natal kicks for negative χ_eff, with an additional channel still required for negative χ_eff fractions and high secondary spins.

Significance. If the conclusions hold, the work supplies a concrete, multi-dimensional constraint on BH accretion during SMT and clarifies why detailed Case A–dominated models reverse earlier rapid-population-synthesis claims that conservative accretion suppresses BBH mergers. The disfavoring of fully-conservative accretion as the dominant high-mass channel is a useful, falsifiable result grounded in external BGP posteriors and publicly documented POSYDON/MESA grids. The Appendix B grid-slice analysis of orbital response under different accretion efficiencies is a genuine technical contribution. The paper also cleanly separates primary-mass pollution of the PISN gap from nuclear-rate shifts, which is valuable for interpreting the primary/secondary mass asymmetry in GW catalogs.

major comments (3)
  1. [§2.2, §4.1, §5.2, §6] §2.2 and §5.2 state that full-fallback progenitors (Fryer delayed, M_CO≳11 M⊙) should receive only few km/s neutrino recoils, yet the joint claim that Eddington/GRRMHD accretion “with modest kicks can explain part of the high-mass population” (§6, abstract) relies on Low/Normal kicks drawn from mass- and fallback-unscaled log-normals (§2.2). Negative χ_eff fractions of ∼16–19% and usable χ_p support appear only under those kicks (§4.1; Figs. 3, 6). Under a fallback-scaled or few-km/s prior, the No-kick panels revert to χ_eff≥0, so the residual rather than total need for another channel is not demonstrated. Please either (i) add a fallback-/mass-scaled kick suite and restate how much of the BGP locus isolated SMT still covers, or (ii) reframe the joint claim so that negative χ_eff/χ_p are attributed primarily to an additional channel, with unscaled kicks treated as an exploratory upper bo
  2. [§3–4, Table 1, §5.4] Comparisons to BGP are visual PDF/contour overlays (Figs. 1–5) without a quantitative figure of merit (e.g., posterior predictive checks, binned likelihood, or Hellinger/KS distances on the joint M1–q–χ_eff space used for the “joint analysis” claim). Given that all models overpredict the high-mass rate density (Table 1: 2.7–31.8 vs BGP 0.57^{+0.8}_{-0.33} Gpc^{-3} yr^{-1}) and that SFH uncertainties are deferred (Briel et al. in prep.; §5.4), the strength of “compatible with” vs “disfavored” language should be tied to a stated metric, or the rate normalization should be explicitly marginalized when judging shape agreement.
  3. [§2] The GRRMHD-informed efficiency is taken from Kwan et al. (in prep.) via the Xing et al. (2025) fit (§2), i.e., a non-public calibration that sets the intermediate case between Eddington and fully conservative. For reproducibility and refereeability, please provide the explicit efficiency–Ṁ relation used (or an archival fit), the range of efficiencies realized in the high-mass SMT progenitors, and a brief sensitivity test if the 10–30% band is shifted.
minor comments (6)
  1. [title page, references] Draft date “July 31, 2026” and several 2026 arXiv citations are fine for a draft but should be cleaned for journal submission; ensure all in-prep citations that carry load-bearing physics are replaced by citable forms or supplementary material.
  2. [Figure 1] Figure 1 y-axis labels use “10□4” style boxes instead of proper superscripts (likely encoding artifacts); fix for production.
  3. [§3.1, Appendix A] §3.1 and Appendix A: the shift of the lower PISN edge with H-envelope fallback is important; a single sentence in the main text quantifying ΔM_BH (∼74→65 M⊙ Eddington; ∼101→95 M⊙ conservative) would help readers who skip the appendix.
  4. [§4.1, §6] In §4.1 the Normal-kick negative χ_eff fraction for GRRMHD is given as 18.8%, while §6 quotes 20.7% for the same combination—please reconcile.
  5. [Appendix B.1, §5.4] Table 1 is referenced in the appendix discussion but is easy to miss; consider promoting a short rate table into the main text near §5.4.
  6. [§3, Appendix A] Typo/notation: “Z<≤0.01Z⊙” (§3); “GRMHD” vs “GRRMHD” inconsistency in Appendix A figure caption.

Circularity Check

1 steps flagged

No load-bearing circularity: model grids and kick/accretion choices are a priori inputs compared to an external BGP/GWTC-5.0 benchmark.

specific steps
  1. self citation load bearing [§5.3; also §1 and Appendix B (Case A SMT dominance)]
    "This differences arises because, in detailed binary models, Case A mass transfer is the dominant formation pathway for BBH mergers through the SMT channel (M. M. Briel et al. 2026), rather than being a source of failed mergers as in rapid population synthesis."

    The mechanistic explanation for why super-Eddington does not suppress rates leans on a same-lead-author companion paper for Case A dominance in POSYDON. This is minor and non-load-bearing: the rate and distribution results are still computed in this work’s grids and judged against external BGP/GWTC-5.0, not defined by the citation. Does not force the disfavoring of fully-conservative accretion or the joint M1–q–χ_eff conclusions.

full rationale

This is a forward population-synthesis study. Accretion efficiencies (Eddington-limited, GRRMHD-informed fit from external GRRMHD work, fully conservative) and natal-kick distributions (no kick; log-normal Low; Disberg & Mandel Normal without mass/fallback scaling) are chosen before comparison, not fitted to the high-mass BGP posteriors they are tested against. The central claims—fully-conservative accretion produces a kick-resistant χ_eff≈0.6 and q~0.5–0.6 peak disfavored by BGP; Eddington/GRRMHD need kicks for negative χ_eff; an extra channel is still required—are model-vs-external-data statements, not quantities forced by construction from the inputs. Self-citations (POSYDON engine, Briel et al. on Case A SMT, Xing et al. on GRRMHD grids) supply methodology and mechanistic context for why rates are not suppressed; they do not redefine the observational target. Tension between strong high-mass kicks and CCSN full-fallback expectations is a correctness/prior issue, not circularity. Score 1 only for routine overlapping-author infrastructure citations that are not load-bearing for the joint-analysis claim.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

5 free parameters · 7 axioms · 0 invented entities

The central claim rests on standard binary-evolution and GW-population machinery plus several modeling choices that are not forced by first principles: accretion-efficiency brackets, mass-unscaled high-mass kicks, full H-envelope fallback, an adapted PPI/PISN boundary, and IllustrisTNG metallicity-dependent SFH. No new physical entities are postulated; free parameters are mostly prescription switches and distribution hyperparameters rather than fits to the LVK high-mass sample itself.

free parameters (5)
  • BH accretion efficiency bracket = Eddington | ~10–30% (GRRMHD fit) | 100% conservative
    Three discrete choices (Eddington-limited, GRRMHD-informed ~10–30%, fully conservative) span the uncertainty; GRRMHD fit coefficients come from external/in-prep simulations, not fitted to GWTC-5.0.
  • Natal kick log-normal hyperparameters (unscaled) = μ=log(40 km/s) or μ≈5.6; σ=0.68
    Low kick uses μ=log(40 km/s), σ=0.68; Normal uses Disberg & Mandel μ≈5.6, σ=0.68; deliberately no mass/fallback scaling so high-mass BHs still get large kicks.
  • PPI/PISN boundary shift (ΔM_PPI, M_CO) = ΔM_PPI=−20 M⊙, M_CO=0
    Adapted Hendriks et al. with ΔM_PPI=−20 M⊙ and M_CO=0 to match Farag et al. 2022 helium-core thresholds (~60/70 M⊙), placing lower BH gap edge near ~60 M⊙.
  • High-mass analysis threshold M1≥39.7 M⊙ = 39.7 M⊙
    Chosen to match BGP bin edges and exclude the ~35 M⊙ feature; defines the sample on which all claims are conditioned.
  • Binary fraction and initial distributions = f_bin=0.7; flat q; flat log a
    70% binary fraction (Sana et al.), Kroupa IMF 7–200 M⊙ reweighted to 0.01–200, flat q, flat log separation 5–1e5 R⊙—standard but rate-sensitive choices.
axioms (7)
  • domain assumption Isolated binary evolution via stable mass transfer and common-envelope channels as implemented in POSYDON/MESA grids dominates the modeled high-mass sample (~95% SMT).
    Section 3; underpins attributing M1/q/chi_eff features to BH accretion efficiency during SMT.
  • domain assumption Angular momentum accreted at ISCO follows Thorne (1974); natal BH spin from collapsing carbon-depletion profile onto 2.5 M⊙ proto-BH (Bavera appendix).
    Section 2; maps accretion efficiency directly into chi_eff peaks used to disfavor conservative accretion.
  • domain assumption Full hydrogen-envelope fallback at core collapse is allowed (optimistic upper bound on remnant mass).
    Section 2.1 and Appendix A; affects gap pollution and maximum M1 below PISN.
  • ad hoc to paper Massive BH progenitors may receive strong isotropic natal kicks without mass or fallback scaling.
    Section 2.2 explicitly drops standard mass scaling so M1>39.7 systems still tilt; Section 5.2 admits tension with CCSN theory.
  • domain assumption IllustrisTNG-100 star-formation and metallicity history correctly weight low-Z, long-delay mergers at z~0.2.
    Section 2.3; rates overpredict and authors defer SFH uncertainty to Briel et al. in prep.
  • domain assumption BGP non-parametric inference on GWTC-5.0 at z=0.2 is a fair external benchmark for intrinsic M1, q, chi_eff in the high-mass bin.
    Sections 2.3 and 3; all compatibility statements are relative to this model.
  • standard math Standard stellar structure, winds, and binary RLO physics in MESA/POSYDON grids are adequate for Case A SMT outcomes.
    Method backbone; Appendix B uses grid slices to argue orbital shrinkage is weakly sensitive to accretion efficiency for tight Case A.

pith-pipeline@v1.2.0-daily-grok45 · 32044 in / 4468 out tokens · 81832 ms · 2026-07-31T22:04:56.069883+00:00 · methodology

0 comments
read the original abstract

Gravitational-wave observations reveal a population of binary black hole (BBH) mergers with primary masses above ${\sim}40\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$, extending into and potentially beyond the pair-instability mass gap, with a possibly flat mass-ratio and broader \chi_\mathrm{eff} distribution. We investigate whether super-Eddington accretion during stable mass transfer in isolated binary evolution can produce BBH mergers consistent with these properties across primary BH mass, mass-ratio, and \chi_\mathrm{eff} distributions. Using POSYDON, we simulate BBH merger populations with primary BH masses above ${\sim}40\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$, under three BH accretion efficiencies: Eddington-limited, GRRMHD-informed, and fully conservative. We additionally vary the natal kick strength, including strong kicks at high BH masses. We find that super-Eddington accretion does not suppress BBH mergers in the high-mass regime. Fully-conservative accretion leads to an increase of BBH mergers in POSYDON with a strong kick-independent peak at $\chi_\mathrm{eff}=0.6$ and a sharp mass-ratio peak at $q\sim0.5$, whereas observations favor $\chi_\mathrm{eff}=0.0$ and a flatter mass-ratio distribution. The GRRMHD-informed and Eddington-limited accretion are compatible with the observed primary BH mass and mass ratio distribution, but require natal kicks to populate negative \chi_\mathrm{eff}. A joint analysis of the primary BH mass, mass ratio, and \chi_\mathrm{eff} distributions provides strong constraints on binary evolution physics, and disfavor fully-conservative BH accretion as the dominant formation mechanism for high-mass BBH mergers. The Eddington-limited and GRRMHD-informed prescriptions with modest kicks can explain part of the high-mass population, but an additional formation channel is still needed to account for the high fraction of negative \chi_\mathrm{eff} systems and high secondary BH spins.

Figures

Figures reproduced from arXiv: 2607.27962 by Abhishek Chattaraj, Anarya Ray, Elizabeth Teng, Jeff J. Andrews, Max M. Briel, Michael Zevin, Monica Gallegos-Garcia, Olcay B{\i}y{\i}kl{\i}, Philipp M. Srivastava, Seth Gossage, Tassos Fragos, Vicky Kalogera, Zepei Xing.

Figure 1
Figure 1. Figure 1: Primary BH mass distribution of BBH mergers with 0.15 ≤ z ≤ 0.25 and M1 > 39.7M⊙ for the Eddington-limited (blue), GR￾RMHD-informed (orange) and fully conservative (pink) BH accretion efficiency models. From left to right, the panel show populations with no kick, the low kick, and normal kick. The gray region is 95% confidence interval of the BGP model based on GWTC-5.0 events with M1 ≥ 39.7M⊙ evaluated at… view at source ↗
Figure 2
Figure 2. Figure 2: Mass ratio distributions for BBH mergers with M1 > 39.7M⊙ between 0.15 ≤ z ≤ 0.25 shown for the No kick (left), Low kick (middle), and Normal kick (right) natal kick prescriptions, each evaluated with the Eddington-limited (blue), GRRMHD-informed (orange), and fully conservative (pink) BH accretion efficiencies. The gray shaded region denotes the BGP inferred mass ratio distribution conditioned on M1 > 39.… view at source ↗
Figure 3
Figure 3. Figure 3: χeff distributions for the different populations, as in [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p008_3.png] view at source ↗
Figure 4
Figure 4. Figure 4: Two-dimensional density of properties of BBH mergers with M1 > 39.7M⊙ for Eddington-limited (left), GRRMHD-informed (middle), and conservative (right) BH accretion efficiencies in the interval z = [0.15, 0.25] with no natal kick. The top row shows the mass ratio against primary mass with contours at 68%, 95%, and 99% (dark red to light yellow). Additionally, the BGP model from GWTC-5.0 events is shown as t… view at source ↗
Figure 5
Figure 5. Figure 5: Predicted intrinsic population properties of BBH mergers with 0.15 ≤ z ≤ 0.25 and M1 ≥ 39.7M⊙ from the GRRMHD BH accretion with no natal kick (left), a small natal kick (middle), and µ = 270km/s natal kick (right) populations. The top row shows the mass ratio against primary mass with contours at 68%, 95%, and 99% (dark red to light yellow). Additionally, the BGP model from GWTC-5.0 events is shown as the … view at source ↗
Figure 6
Figure 6. Figure 6: Intrinsic χp distribution for the super-Eddington accre￾tion population with the Low kick and Normal kick prescription. Populations without the No kick scenario only have χp = 0 and are therefore not plotted. size. In particular, we highlight the primary spin magnitude χ1, and the effective precession spin, χp, which quantifies the degree of spin misalignment with the orbital angular momen￾tum [PITH_FULL_… view at source ↗
Figure 7
Figure 7. Figure 7: χ1 distributions for the Eddington-limited, GRRMHD, and fully-conservative BH accretion populations with different kick prescriptions for the GRRMHD and conservative populations. We only show the No kick scenario for the Eddington-limited accre￾tion efficiency, as the other kick scenarios follow a similar trend as the other BH accretion efficiencies, where lower χ1 are invoved in the merger. We show the di… view at source ↗
Figure 8
Figure 8. Figure 8: Primary BH mass distributions of BBH mergers with 0.15 ≤ z ≤ 0.25 and M1 > 39.7 M⊙ for the Eddington-limited (blue), GRRMHD-informed (orange), and fully conservative (pink) BH accretion efficiency models. From left to right the panels show populations with No kick, Low kick, and Normal kick prescriptions. The gray regions indicated the 95% confidence interval of the BGP model based on GWTC-5.0 events with … view at source ↗
Figure 9
Figure 9. Figure 9: Slices of the CO-HMS RLO MESA grids at Z = 10−2 Z⊙ with Mdonor ≈ 33 M⊙ with Eddington-limited (left), GRRMHD-informed (middle), and fully conservative (right) BH accretion. The diamond markers in red and orange indicate models reaching the unstable mass transfer conditions of the maximum mass transfer rate of 0.1M⊙/yr and L2 outflow, respectively. Stable mass transfer models are indicates with square marke… view at source ↗

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Reference graph

Works this paper leans on

133 extracted references · 5 canonical work pages · 1 internal anchor

  1. [1]

    Abac, A. G. and Abouelfettouh, I. and Acernese, F. and Ackley, K. and Adamcewicz, C. and Adhicary, S. and Adhikari, D. and Adhikari, N. and Adhikari, R. X. and Adkins, V. K. and Afroz, S. and Agarwal, D. and Agathos, M. and Abchouyeh, M. Aghaei and Aguiar, O. D. and Ahmadzadeh, S. and Aiello, L. and Ain, A. and Ajith, P. and Akutsu, T. and Albanesi, S. an...

  2. [2]

    Abac, A. G. and Abouelfettouh, I. and Acernese, F. and Ackley, K. and Adamcewicz, C. and Adhicary, S. and Adhikari, D. and Adhikari, N. and Adhikari, R. X. and Adkins, V. K. and Afroz, S. and Agapito, A. and Agarwal, D. and Agathos, M. and Aggarwal, N. and Aggarwal, S. and Aguiar, O. D. and Ahrend, I.-L. and Aiello, L. and Ain, A. and Ajith, P. and Akutsu...

  3. [3]

    Abac, A. G. and Abouelfettouh, I. and Acernese, F. and Ackley, K. and Adhicary, S. and Adhikari, D. and Adhikari, N. and Adhikari, R. X. and Adkins, V. K. and Afroz, S. and Agarwal, D. and Agathos, M. and Aghaei Abchouyeh, M. and Aguiar, O. D. and Ahmadzadeh, S. and Aiello, L. and Ain, A. and Ajith, P. and Akcay, S. and Akutsu, T. and Albanesi, S. and Alf...

  4. [4]

    Abac, A. G. and Abe, A. and Abouelfettouh, I. and Acernese, F. and Ackley, K. and Adam, A. and Adhicary, S. and Adhikari, D. and Adhikari, R. X. and Adkins, V. K. and Afroz, S. and Agapito, A. and Agarwal, D. and Agathos, M. and Aggarwal, N. and Aggarwal, S. and Aguiar, O. D. and Ahrend, I.-L. and Aiello, L. and Ain, A. and Ajith, P. and Akutsu, T. and Al...

  5. [5]

    Abbott, B. P. and Abbott, R. and Abbott, T. D. and Abraham, S. and Acernese, F. and Ackley, K. and Adams, C. and Adya, V. B. and Affeldt, C. and Agathos, M. and Agatsuma, K. and Aggarwal, N. and Aguiar, O. D. and Aiello, L. and Ain, A. and Ajith, P. and Akutsu, T. and Allen, G. and Allocca, A. and Aloy, M. A. and Altin, P. A. and Amato, A. and Ananyeva, A...

  6. [6]

    and Abbott, T

    Abbott, R. and Abbott, T. D. and Abraham, S. and Acernese, F. and Ackley, K. and Adams, C. and Adhikari, R. X. and Adya, V. B. and Affeldt, C. and Agathos, M. and Agatsuma, K. and Aggarwal, N. and Aguiar, O. D. and Aich, A. and Aiello, L. and Ain, A. and Ajith, P. and Akcay, S. and Allen, G. and Allocca, A. and Altin, P. A. and Amato, A. and Anand, S. and...

  7. [7]

    and Abbott, T

    Abbott, R. and Abbott, T. D. and Abraham, S. and Acernese, F. and Ackley, K. and Adams, C. and Adhikari, R. X. and Adya, V. B. and Affeldt, C. and Agathos, M. and Agatsuma, K. and Aggarwal, N. and Aguiar, O. D. and Aich, A. and Aiello, L. and Ain, A. and Ajith, P. and Akcay, S. and Allen, G. and Allocca, A. and Altin, P. A. and Amato, A. and Anand, S. and...

  8. [8]

    Advanced Virgo: A Second-Generation Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detector , shorttitle =

    Acernese, F and Agathos, M and Agatsuma, K and Aisa, D and Allemandou, N and Allocca, A and Amarni, J and Astone, P and Balestri, G and Ballardin, G and Barone, F and Baronick, J-P and Barsuglia, M and Basti, A and Basti, F and Bauer, Th S and Bavigadda, V and Bejger, M and Beker, M G and Belczynski, C and Bersanetti, D and Bertolini, A and Bitossi, M and...

  9. [9]

    Afroz, Samsuzzaman and Mukherjee, Suvodip , year = 2025, month = jun, number =. Phase. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2411.07304 , urldate =. arXiv , keywords =:2411.07304 , primaryclass =

  10. [10]

    doi:10.48550/arXiv.2509.09123 , urldate =

    Binary Black Hole Phase Space Discovers the Signature of Pair Instability Supernovae Mass Gap , author =. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2509.09123 , urldate =. arXiv , keywords =:2509.09123 , primaryclass =

  11. [11]

    Overview of

    Akutsu, T and Ando, M and Arai, K and Arai, Y and Araki, S and Araya, A and Aritomi, N and Asada, H and Aso, Y and Bae, S and Bae, Y and Baiotti, L and Bajpai, R and Barton, M A and Cannon, K and Cao, Z and Capocasa, E and Chan, M and Chen, C and Chen, K and Chen, Y and Chiang, C -Y and Chu, H and Chu, Y -K and Eguchi, S and Enomoto, Y and Flaminio, R and...

  12. [12]

    doi:10.48550/arXiv.2606.12205 , urldate =

    Evidence for Additional Structure in the Effective Spin Distribution Hints at Multiple Formation Pathways in. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2606.12205 , urldate =. arXiv , keywords =:2606.12205 , primaryclass =

  13. [13]

    and Kalogera, Vicky , year = 2022, month = may, journal =

    Andrews, Jeff J. and Kalogera, Vicky , year = 2022, month = may, journal =. Constraining. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac66d6 , urldate =

  14. [14]

    and Bavera, Simone S

    Andrews, Jeff J. and Bavera, Simone S. and Briel, Max and Chattaraj, Abhishek and Dotter, Aaron and Fragos, Tassos and. ApJS , volume =. doi:10.3847/1538-4365/adfb78 , urldate =

  15. [15]

    and Freeman, Kenneth C

    Anguiano, Borja and Majewski, Steven R. and Freeman, Kenneth C. and Mitschang, Arik W. and Smith, Martin C. , year = 2018, month = feb, journal =. The Velocity Ellipsoid in the. doi:10.1093/mnras/stx2774 , urldate =

  16. [16]

    Numerical Simulations of the Random Angular Momentum in Convection

    Antoni, Andrea and Quataert, Eliot , year = 2023, month = jan, journal =. Numerical Simulations of the Random Angular Momentum in Convection. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2301.05237 , urldate =

  17. [17]

    Star Cluster Population of High Mass Black Hole Mergers in Gravitational Wave Data , author =. Phys. Rev. Lett. , volume =. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.011401 , urldate =

  18. [18]

    Gravitational-Wave Constraints on the Pair-Instability Mass Gap and Nuclear Burning in Massive Stars , author =. Nat. Astron , pages =. doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02847-0 , urldate =

  19. [19]

    Atri, P. and. Potential Kick Velocity Distribution of Black Hole. MNRAS , volume =. doi:10.1093/mnras/stz2335 , urldate =

  20. [20]

    2004.00650 , urldate =

    The Mass Gap, the Spin Gap, and the Origin of Merging Binary Black Holes , author =. 2004.00650 , urldate =

  21. [21]

    doi:10.48550/arXiv.2412.03461 , urldate =

    Revising the Spin and Kick Connection in Isolated Binary Black Holes , author =. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2412.03461 , urldate =. arXiv , keywords =:2412.03461 , primaryclass =

  22. [22]

    ApJ , volume =

    Modeling Kicks from the Merger of Nonprecessing Black Hole Binaries , author =. ApJ , volume =. doi:10.1086/521330 , urldate =

  23. [23]

    doi:10.48550/arXiv.2509.15646 , urldate =

    Evidence for Three Subpopulations of Merging Binary Black Holes at Different Primary Masses , author =. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2509.15646 , urldate =. arXiv , keywords =:2509.15646 , primaryclass =

  24. [24]

    ApJ , volume =

    Symmetry Breaking in Merging Binary Black Holes from Young Massive Clusters and Isolated Binaries , author =. ApJ , volume =. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acdd59 , urldate =. arXiv , keywords =:2302.10851 , primaryclass =

  25. [25]

    Dynamics of Supernova Explosion Resulting from Pair Formation , author =. Phys. Rev. Lett. , volume =. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.18.379 , urldate =

  26. [26]

    Accretion Is All You Need: Black Hole Spin Alignment in Merger

    Bartos, Imre and Haiman, Zoltan , year = 2025, month = aug, publisher =. Accretion Is All You Need: Black Hole Spin Alignment in Merger. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2508.08558 , urldate =

  27. [27]

    A&A , volume =

    The Impact of Mass-Transfer Physics on the Observable Properties of Field Binary Black Hole Populations , author =. A&A , volume =. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202039804 , urldate =

  28. [28]

    ApJL , volume =

    The Most Ordinary Formation of the Most Unusual Double Black Hole Merger , author =. ApJL , volume =. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/abcbf1 , urldate =

  29. [29]

    , year = 1961, month = may, journal =

    Blaauw, A. , year = 1961, month = may, journal =. On the Origin of the

  30. [30]

    and Fishbach, Maya , year = 2025, month = jul, journal =

    Borchers, Angela and Ye, Claire S. and Fishbach, Maya , year = 2025, month = jul, journal =. Gravitational-Wave. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/addec6 , urldate =

  31. [31]

    Briel, M. M. and Stevance, H. F. and Eldridge, J. J. , year = 2023, month = apr, journal =. Understanding the High-Mass Binary Black Hole Population from Stable Mass Transfer and Super-Eddington Accretion in. doi:10.1093/mnras/stad399 , urldate =

  32. [32]

    and Fragos, Tassos and

    Briel, Max M. and Fragos, Tassos and. A Case for Case a: Detailed Look at Binary Black Hole Formation through Stable Mass Transfer , shorttitle =. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2602.03629 , urldate =

  33. [33]

    and Stevenson, Simon and Thrane, Eric , year = 2022, month = oct, journal =

    Broekgaarden, Floor S. and Stevenson, Simon and Thrane, Eric , year = 2022, month = oct, journal =. Signatures of. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac8879 , urldate =

  34. [34]

    and Berger, Edo and Stevenson, Simon and Justham, Stephen and Mandel, Ilya and Chru

    Broekgaarden, Floor S. and Berger, Edo and Stevenson, Simon and Justham, Stephen and Mandel, Ilya and Chru. Impact of Massive Binary Star and Cosmic Evolution on Gravitational Wave Observations -. MNRAS , volume =. doi:10.1093/mnras/stac1677 , urldate =

  35. [35]

    Burrows, Adam and Wang, Tianshu and Vartanyan, David and Coleman, Matthew S. B. , year = 2024, month = feb, journal =. A. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ad2353 , urldate =

  36. [36]

    ApJ , volume =

    Channels of Stellar-Mass Black Hole Formation , author =. ApJ , volume =. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/addd04 , urldate =

  37. [37]

    ApJ , volume =

    On the Nature of Core-Collapse Supernova Explosions , author =. ApJ , volume =. doi:10.1086/176188 , urldate =

  38. [38]

    and Farr, Will M

    Callister, Thomas A. and Farr, Will M. and Renzo, Mathieu , year = 2021, month = oct, journal =. State of the. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac1347 , urldate =. arXiv , keywords =:2011.09570 , pages =

  39. [39]

    ApJ , volume =

    The Primordial Black Hole Mass Spectrum , author =. ApJ , volume =. doi:10.1086/153853 , urldate =

  40. [40]

    Black Hole Formation and Fallback during the Supernova Explosion of a 40

    Chan, Conrad and M. Black Hole Formation and Fallback during the Supernova Explosion of a 40. ApJ , volume =. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aaa28c , urldate =

  41. [41]

    Abac, A. G. and Abouelfettouh, I. and Acernese, F. and Ackley, K. and Adam, A. and Adhicary, S. and Adhikari, D. and Adhikari, R. X. and Adkins, V. K. and Afroz, S. and Agapito, A. and Agarwal, D. and Agathos, M. and Aggarwal, N. and Aggarwal, S. and Aguiar, O. D. and Ahrend, I.-L. and Aiello, L. and Ain, A. and Ajith, P. and Akutsu, T. and Albers, L. and...

  42. [42]

    On the Natal Kick of the Black Hole

    Dashwood Brown, Cordelia and Gandhi, Poshak and Zhao, Yue , year = 2024, month = jan, journal =. On the Natal Kick of the Black Hole. doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slad151 , urldate =

  43. [43]

    doi:10.1103/y4x3-v6j2 , urldate =

    De Luca, Valerio and Franciolini, Gabriele and Riotto, Antonio , year = 2026, month = may, journal =. doi:10.1103/y4x3-v6j2 , urldate =

  44. [44]

    ApJ , volume =

    The Kick Velocity Distribution of Isolated Neutron Stars , author =. ApJ , volume =. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/adf286 , urldate =

  45. [45]

    Eldridge, J. J. and Stanway, E. R. and Xiao, L. and McClelland, L. A. S. and Taylor, G. and Ng, M. and Greis, S. M. L. and Bray, J. C. , year = 2017, month = nov, journal =. Binary. doi:10.1017/pasa.2017.51 , urldate =. arXiv , keywords =:1710.02154v1 , pages =

  46. [46]

    Simulations of

    Escriv. Simulations of. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. , volume =. doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2023/05/004 , urldate =. arXiv , keywords =:2209.06196 , primaryclass =

  47. [47]

    ApJ , volume =

    Resolving the Peak of the Black Hole Mass Spectrum , author =. ApJ , volume =. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac8b83 , urldate =

  48. [48]

    and Renzo, M

    Farmer, R. and Renzo, M. and. Mind the Gap: The Location of the Lower Edge of the Pair-Instability Supernova Black Hole Mass Gap , shorttitle =. ApJ , volume =. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab518b , urldate =

  49. [49]

    ApJL , volume =

    The Most Massive Binary Black Hole Detections and the Identification of Population Outliers , author =. ApJL , volume =. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ab77c9 , urldate =

  50. [50]

    and Hoyle, F

    Fowler, William A. and Hoyle, F. , year = 1964, month = dec, journal =. Neutrino. doi:10.1086/190103 , urldate =

  51. [51]

    and Willems, B

    Fragos, T. and Willems, B. and Kalogera, V. and Ivanova, N. and Rockefeller, G. and Fryer, C. L. and Young, P. A. , year = 2009, month = jun, journal =. Understanding. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/697/2/1057 , urldate =

  52. [52]

    ApJ , volume =

    Black Hole Spin--Orbit Misalignment in Galactic x-Ray Binaries , author =. ApJ , volume =. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/719/1/L79 , urldate =

  53. [53]

    and Bavera, Simone S

    Fragos, Tassos and Andrews, Jeff J. and Bavera, Simone S. and Berry, Christopher P. L. and Coughlin, Scott and Dotter, Aaron and Giri, Prabin and Kalogera, Vicky and Katsaggelos, Aggelos and Kovlakas, Konstantinos and Lalvani, Shamal and Misra, Devina and Srivastava, Philipp M. and Qin, Ying and Rocha, Kyle A. and. ApJS , volume =. doi:10.3847/1538-4365/a...

  54. [54]

    , year = 1968, month = aug, journal =

    Fraley, Gary S. , year = 1968, month = aug, journal =. Supernovae. doi:10.1007/BF00651498 , urldate =

  55. [55]

    and Belczynski, Krzysztof and Wiktorowicz, Grzegorz and Dominik, Michal and Kalogera, Vicky and Holz, Daniel E

    Fryer, Chris L. and Belczynski, Krzysztof and Wiktorowicz, Grzegorz and Dominik, Michal and Kalogera, Vicky and Holz, Daniel E. , year = 2012, month = mar, journal =. Compact Remnant Mass Function: Dependence on the Explosion Mechanism and Metallicity , shorttitle =. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/749/1/91 , urldate =

  56. [56]

    Compactness Peaks: An Astrophysical Interpretation of the Mass Distribution of Merging Binary Black Holes , shorttitle =

    Galaudage, Shanika and Lamberts, Astrid , year = 2025, month = feb, journal =. Compactness Peaks: An Astrophysical Interpretation of the Mass Distribution of Merging Binary Black Holes , shorttitle =. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202451654 , urldate =. arXiv , keywords =:2407.17561 , primaryclass =

  57. [57]

    Spin Orientations of Merging Black Holes Formed from the Evolution of Stellar Binaries , author =. Phys. Rev. D , volume =

  58. [58]

    Hierarchical Mergers of Stellar-Mass Black Holes and Their Gravitational-Wave Signatures , author =. Nat. Astron , volume =. doi:10.1038/s41550-021-01398-w , urldate =

  59. [59]

    High Mass but Low Spin: An Exclusion Region to Rule out Hierarchical Black-Hole Mergers as a Mechanism to Populate the Pair-Instability Mass Gap , shorttitle =

    Gerosa, Davide and Giacobbo, Nicola and Vecchio, Alberto , year = 2021, month = apr, journal =. High Mass but Low Spin: An Exclusion Region to Rule out Hierarchical Black-Hole Mergers as a Mechanism to Populate the Pair-Instability Mass Gap , shorttitle =. arXiv , keywords =:2104.11247 , primaryclass =

  60. [60]

    Ionizing Spectra of Stars That Lose Their Envelope through Interaction with a Binary Companion: Role of Metallicity , shorttitle =

    G. Ionizing Spectra of Stars That Lose Their Envelope through Interaction with a Binary Companion: Role of Metallicity , shorttitle =. A&A , volume =. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201730472 , urldate =

  61. [61]

    Gualandris, Alessia and Colpi, Monica and Portegies Zwart, Simon and Possenti, Andrea , year = 2005, month = jan, journal =. Has the. doi:10.1086/426126 , urldate =

  62. [62]

    ApJ , volume =

    How Massive Single Stars End Their Life , author =. ApJ , volume =. doi:10.1086/375341 , urldate =. arXiv , keywords =:astro-ph/0212469 , pages =

  63. [63]

    MNRAS , volume =

    Pulsational Pair-Instability Supernovae in Gravitational-Wave and Electromagnetic Transients , author =. MNRAS , volume =. doi:10.1093/mnras/stad2857 , urldate =

  64. [64]

    MNRAS , volume =

    A Statistical Study of 233 Pulsar Proper Motions , author =. MNRAS , volume =. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09087.x , urldate =. arXiv , keywords =:astro-ph/0504584 , pages =

  65. [65]

    Astrophys

    Interplay between Neutrino Kicks and Hydrodynamic Kicks of Neutron Stars and Black Holes , author =. Astrophys. Space Sci. , volume =. doi:10.1007/s10509-024-04343-1 , urldate =

  66. [66]

    A&A , volume =

    Neutron Star Recoils from Anisotropic Supernovae , author =. A&A , volume =

  67. [67]

    and Bauer, Evan B

    Jermyn, Adam S. and Bauer, Evan B. and Schwab, Josiah and Farmer, R. and Ball, Warrick H. and Bellinger, Earl P. and Dotter, Aaron and Joyce, Meridith and Marchant, Pablo and Mombarg, Joey S. G. and Wolf, William M. and Sunny Wong, Tin Long and Cinquegrana, Giulia C. and Farrell, Eoin and Smolec, R. and Thoul, Anne and Cantiello, Matteo and Herwig, Falk a...

  68. [68]

    Kimball, Chase and Talbot, Colm and Berry, Christopher P. L. and Carney, Matthew and Zevin, Michael and Thrane, Eric and Kalogera, Vicky , year = 2020, month = may, journal =. Black Hole Genealogy:. arXiv , keywords =:2005.00023 , primaryclass =

  69. [69]

    Kimball, Chase and Talbot, Colm and Berry, Christopher P. L. and Zevin, Michael and Thrane, Eric and Kalogera, Vicky and Buscicchio, Riccardo and Carney, Matthew and Dent, Thomas and Middleton, Hannah and Payne, Ethan and Veitch, John and Williams, Daniel , year = 2021, month = jul, journal =. Evidence for Hierarchical Black Hole Mergers in the Second. do...

  70. [70]

    and Doctor, Zoheyr and Andrews, Jeff J

    Kimball, Chase and Imperato, Sam and Kalogera, Vicky and Rocha, Kyle A. and Doctor, Zoheyr and Andrews, Jeff J. and Dotter, Aaron and Zapartas, Emmanouil and Bavera, Simone S. and Kovlakas, Konstantinos and Fragos, Tassos and Srivastava, Philipp M. and Misra, Devina and Sun, Meng and Xing, Zepei , year = 2023, month = aug, journal =. A. doi:10.3847/2041-8...

  71. [71]

    and Pols, Onno , year = 2020, month = jun, journal =

    Klencki, Jakub and Nelemans, Gijs and Istrate, Alina G. and Pols, Onno , year = 2020, month = jun, journal =. Massive Donors in Interacting Binaries: Effect of Metallicity , shorttitle =. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202037694 , urldate =

  72. [72]

    Comfort Zones of Stars:

    Klencki, Jakub and Podsiadlowski, Philipp and Langer, Norbert and Olejak, Aleksandra and Justham, Stephen and. Comfort Zones of Stars:. A&A , volume =. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202555500 , urldate =

  73. [73]

    MNRAS , volume =

    On the Variation of the Initial Mass Function , author =. MNRAS , volume =. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04022.x , urldate =

  74. [74]

    and Sanders, Ryan L

    Lam, Natalie and Clarke, Leonardo and Shapley, Alice E. and Sanders, Ryan L. and Topping, Michael W. and Brammer, Gabriel B. and Reddy, Naveen A. and Karthikeyan, Shreya , year = 2026, month = may, urldate =. The

  75. [75]

    Resolving the Stellar-Collapse and Hierarchical-Merger Origins of the Coalescing Black Holes , author =. Phys. Rev. Lett. , volume =. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.051401 , urldate =. arXiv , keywords =:2303.02973 , primaryclass =

  76. [76]

    A New Bump in the Night: Evidence of a New Feature in the Binary Black Hole Mass Distribution at \ 70 m\_ odot \ from Gravitational-Wave Observations , shorttitle =

    Maga. A New Bump in the Night: Evidence of a New Feature in the Binary Black Hole Mass Distribution at \ 70 m\_ odot \ from Gravitational-Wave Observations , shorttitle =. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2407.02460 , urldate =

  77. [77]

    Estimates of Black Hole Natal Kick Velocities from Observations of Low-Mass

    Mandel, Ilya , year = 2016, month = feb, journal =. Estimates of Black Hole Natal Kick Velocities from Observations of Low-Mass. doi:10.1093/mnras/stv2733 , urldate =

  78. [78]

    Living Reviews in Relativity , volume =

    Rates of Compact Object Coalescences , author =. Living Reviews in Relativity , volume =. doi:10.1007/s41114-021-00034-3 , urldate =

  79. [79]

    doi:10.48550/arXiv.2509.05885 , urldate =

    What Is the Most Massive Gravitational-Wave Source? , author =. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2509.05885 , urldate =. arXiv , keywords =:2509.05885 , primaryclass =

  80. [80]

    First Results from the

    Marinacci, Federico and Vogelsberger, Mark and Pakmor, R. First Results from the. MNRAS , volume =. doi:10.1093/mnras/sty2206 , urldate =. arXiv , keywords =:1707.03396 , pages =

Showing first 80 references.