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Merging stellar-mass binary black holes

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arxiv 1806.05820 v3 pith:ZGKN63PW submitted 2018-06-15 astro-ph.HE astro-ph.SRgr-qc

classification astro-ph.HEastro-ph.SRgr-qc
keywords mergersstellar-massalongbinaryblackholesmergingobservations
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The LIGO and Virgo detectors have directly observed gravitational waves from mergers of pairs of stellar-mass black holes, along with a smaller number of mergers involving neutron stars. These observations raise the hope that compact object mergers could be used as a probe of stellar and binary evolution, and perhaps of stellar dynamics. This colloquium-style article summarises the existing observations, describes theoretical predictions for formation channels of merging stellar-mass black-hole binaries along with their rates and observable properties, and presents some prospects for gravitational-wave astronomy.

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