All ten LIGO/Virgo binary black hole (BH-BH) coalescences reported following the O1/O2 runs have near-zero effective spins. There are only three potential explanations for this. If the BH spin magnitudes are large, then: (i) either both BH spin vectors must be nearly in the orbital plane or (ii) the spin angular momenta of the BHs must be oppositely directed and similar in magnitude. Then there is also the possibility that (iii) the BH spin magnitudes are small. We consider the third hypothesis within the framework of the classical isolated binary evolution scenario of the BH-BH merger formation. We test three models of angular momentum transport in massive stars: a mildly efficient transport by meridional currents (as employed in the Geneva code), an efficient transport by the Tayler-Spruit magnetic dynamo (as implemented in the MESA code), and a very-efficient transport (as proposed by Fuller et al.) to calculate natal BH spins. We allow for binary evolution to increase the BH spins through accretion and account for the potential spin-up of stars through tidal interactions. Additionally, we update the calculations of the stellar-origin BH masses, including revisions to the history of star formation and to the chemical evolution across cosmic time. We find that we can simultaneously match the observed BH-BH merger rate density and BH masses and BH-BH effective spins. Models with efficient angular momentum transport are favored. The updated stellar-mass weighted gas-phase metallicity evolution now used in our models appears to be key for obtaining an improved reproduction of the LIGO/Virgo merger rate estimate. Mass losses during the pair-instability pulsation supernova phase are likely to be overestimated if the merger GW170729 hosts a BH more massive than 50 M⊙. We also estimate rates of black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) mergers from recent LIGO/Virgo observations. If, in fact. angular momentum transport in massive stars is efficient, then any (electromagnetic or gravitational wave) observation of a rapidly spinning BH would indicate either a very effective tidal spin up of the progenitor star (homogeneous evolution, high-mass X-ray binary formation through case A mass transfer, or a spin- up of a Wolf-Rayet star in a close binary by a close companion), significant mass accretion by the hole, or a BH formation through the merger of two or more BHs (in a dense stellar cluster).

We report 6 yr monitoring of a distant bright quasar CTS C30.10 (z = 0.90052) with the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). We measured the rest-frame time-lag of 562±2 days between the continuum variations and the response of the Mg II emission line, using the Javelin approach. More conservative approach, based on five different methods, imply the time delay of 564 +109 −71 days. This time delay, combined with other available measurements of Mg II line delay, mostly for lower redshift sources, shows that the Mg II line reverberation implies a radius-luminosity relation very similar to the one based on a more frequently studied Hβ line.

The LIGO/Virgo Collaboration has reported the detection of GW190412, a black hole–black hole (BH–BH) merger with the most unequal masses to date. (Another system, with even more unequal-mass components, was recently published by LIGO/Virgo: GW190814 (m 1 = 23 , m 2 = 2.6  ); however, it is not known whether it is a BH–BH or BH–NS merger (Abbott et al. 2020).) They are m 1 = 24.4–34.7  and m 2 = 7.4–10.1  , corresponding to a mass ratio of q = 0.21–0.41 (90% probability range). Additionally, GW190412's effective spin was estimated to be χ eff = 0.14–0.34, with the spin of the primary BH in the range a spin = 0.17–0.59. Based on this and prior detections, ≳10% of BH–BH mergers have q ≲ 0.4. Major BH–BH formation channels (i.e., dynamics in dense stellar systems, classical isolated binary evolution, or chemically homogeneous evolution) tend to produce BH–BH mergers with comparable masses (typically with q ≳ 0.5). Here we test whether the classical isolated binary evolution channel can produce mergers resembling GW190412. We show that our standard binary evolution scenario, with the typical assumptions on input physics that we have used in the past, produces such mergers. For this particular model of the input physics the overall BH–BH merger rate density in the local universe (z ∼ 0) is , while for systems with the rate density is . The results from our standard model are consistent with the masses and spins of the black holes in GW190412, as well as with the LIGO/Virgo estimate of the fraction of unequal-mass BH–BH mergers. As GW190412 shows some weak evidence for misaligned spins, we provide distribution of the precession parameter in our models and conclude that if among the new LIGO/Virgo detections the evidence of system precession is strong and more than 10% of BH–BH mergers have large in-plane spin components (χ p > 0.5), then the common envelope isolated binary BH–BH formation channel can be excluded as their origin.

The treatment and criteria for development of unstable Roche lobe overflow (RLOF) that leads to the common envelope (CE) phase have hindered the area of evolutionary predictions for decades. In particular, the formation of black hole-black hole (BH-BH), black hole-neutron star (BH-NS), and neutron star-neutron star (NS-NS) merging binaries depends sensitively on the CE phase in classical isolated binary evolution model. All these mergers are now reported as LIGO/Virgo sources or source candidates. CE is even considered by some as a mandatory phase in the formation of BH-BH, BH-NS, or NS-NS mergers in binary evolution models. At the moment, there is no full first-principles model for the development of the CE. We employed the StarTrack population synthesis code to test the current advancements in studies on the stability of RLOF for massive donors to assess their effect on the LIGO/Virgo source population. In particular, we allowed for more restrictive CE development criteria for massive donors (M >  18 M⊙). We also tested a modified condition for switching between different types of stable mass transfer and between the thermal or nuclear timescale. The implemented modifications significantly influence the basic properties of merging double compact objects, sometimes in non-intuitive ways. For one of the tested models, with restricted CE development criteria, the local merger rate density for BH-BH systems increased by a factor of 2–3 due to the emergence of a new dominant formation scenario without any CE phase. We find that the changes in highly uncertain assumptions on RLOF physics may significantly affect: (i) the local merger rate density; (ii) shape of the mass and mass ratio distributions; and (iii) dominant evolutionary formation (with and without CE) scenarios of LIGO/Virgo sources. Our results demonstrate that without sufficiently strong constraints on RLOF physics, it is not possible to draw fully reliable conclusions about the population of double compact object systems based on population synthesis studies.

Aims.We present an open-access database which includes a synthetic catalog of black holes (BHs) in the Milky Way, divided into components: disk, bulge and halo. Methods. To calculate evolution of single and binary star we used updated population synthesis code StarTrack. We applied a new model of star formation history and chemical evolution of Galactic disk, bulge and halo synthesized from observational and theoretical data. This model can be easily employed for farther evolutionary population studies. Results. We find that at the current moment Milky Way (disk+bulge+halo) contains about 1.6 × 10 8 single black holes with average mass of about 13 M and 9.3 × 10 6 BHs in binary systems with average mass of 19 M . The predominance of single BHs is caused by three main processes. First, star formation generates only moderate binary fractions (about 50%), making ∼ 1/3 of stars single. About ∼ 35% of single BHs are remnants of massive single star evolution. Second, ∼ 40% of single BHs are formed in binary systems merger. Third, ∼ 25% of single BHs comes from disrupted binary systems during black hole/neutron star (NS) formation. We present basic statistical properties of BH population in three Galactic components such as distributions of single and binary BH masses, velocities or numbers of BH binary systems in different evolutionary configurations. Conclusions. We find that the most massive BHs are formed in mergers of binary stars and BH-BH systems. The metallicity of stellar population has a significant impact on the final BH mass due to the stellar winds. Therefore the most massive single BH in our simulation, 130 M , originates from a merger of main sequence and helium star in a low metallicity stellar environment in Galactic halo. The most massive BH in binary system is ∼ 60 M and was also formed in halo. We constrain that only ∼ 0.005 % of total Galactic halo mass (including dark matter) could be hidden in the form of stellar origin BHs which are not detectable by current observational surveys. Galactic binary BHs are minority (∼ 10% of all Galactic BHs) and most of them are in BH-BH systems ( ∼ 8% of all). We calculated current Galactic double compact objects (DCOs) merger rates for two considered common envelope models which are: ∼ 3-81 Myr −1 for BH-BH, ∼ 1-9 Myr −1 for BH-NS and ∼ 14-59 Myr −1 for NS-NS systems. We show how DCOs merger rates evolved since Milky Way formation till the current moment having the new adopted star formation model of Galaxy. Data files are available on our website https://bhc.syntheticuniverse.org/.

The LIGO–Virgo collaboration has reported 50 black hole–black hole (BH–BH) mergers and 8 candidates recovered from digging deeper into the detector noise. The majority of these mergers have low effective spins pointing toward low BH spins and efficient angular momentum (AM) transport in massive stars as proposed by several models (e.g., the Tayler–Spruit dynamo). However, out of these 58 mergers, 7 are consistent with having high effective-spin parameter (χ eff > 0.3). Additionally, two events seem to have high effective spins sourced from the spin of the primary (more massive) BH. These particular observations could be used to discriminate between the isolated binary and dynamical formation channels. It might seem that high BH spins point to a dynamical origin if AM in stars is efficient and forms low-spinning BHs. In such a case dynamical formation is required to produce second and third generations of BH–BH mergers with typically high spinning BHs. Here we show, however, that isolated binary BH–BH formation naturally reproduces such highly spinning BHs. Our models start with efficient AM in massive stars that is needed to reproduce the majority of BH–BH mergers with low effective spins. Later, some of the binaries are subject to a tidal spin-up allowing the formation of a moderate fraction (∼10%) of BH–BH mergers with high effective spins (χ eff ≳ 0.4–0.5). In addition, isolated binary evolution can produce a small fraction of BH–BH mergers with almost maximally spinning primary BHs. Therefore, the formation scenario of these atypical BH–BH mergers remains to be found.

The LIGO/Virgo gravitational-wave observatories have detected at least 50 double black hole (BH) coalescences. This sample is large enough to have allowed several recent studies to draw conclusions about the implied branching ratios between isolated binaries versus dense stellar clusters as the origin of double BHs. It has also led to the exciting suggestion that the population is highly likely to contain primordial BHs. Here we demonstrate that such conclusions cannot yet be robust because of the large current uncertainties in several key aspects of binary stellar evolution. These include the development and survival of a common envelope, the mass and angular-momentum loss during binary interactions, mixing in stellar interiors, pair-instability mass loss, and supernova outbursts. Using standard tools such as the rapid population synthesis codes StarTrack and COMPAS and the detailed stellar evolution code MESA, we examine as a case study the possible future evolution of Melnick 34, the most massive known binary star system (with initial component masses of 144 M ⊙ and 131 M ⊙). We show that, despite its fairly well-known orbital architecture, various assumptions regarding stellar and binary physics predict a wide variety of outcomes: from a close BH–BH binary (which would lead to a potentially detectable coalescence), through a wide BH–BH binary (which might be seen in microlensing observations), or a Thorne–Żytkow object, to a complete disruption of both objects by a pair-instability supernova. Thus, because the future of massive binaries is inherently uncertain, sound predictions about the properties of BH–BH systems formed in the isolated binary evolution scenario are highly challenging at this time. Consequently, it is premature to draw conclusions about the formation channel branching ratios that involve isolated binary evolution for the LIGO/Virgo BH–BH merger population.

Using six years of spectroscopic monitoring of the luminous quasar HE 0435-4312 (z = 1.2231) with the Southern African Large Telescope, in combination with photometric data (CATALINA, OGLE, SALTICAM, and BMT), we determined a rest-frame time delay of days between the Mg ii broad-line emission and the ionizing continuum using seven different time-delay inference methods. Time-delay artifact peaks and aliases were mitigated using the bootstrap method and prior weighting probability function, as well as by analyzing unevenly sampled mock light curves. The Mg ii emission is considerably variable with a fractional variability of ∼5.4%, which is comparable to the continuum variability (∼4.8%). Because of its high luminosity (L 3000 = 1046.4 erg s−1), the source is beneficial for a further reduction of the scatter along the Mg ii-based radius–luminosity relation and its extended versions, especially when the highly accreting subsample that has an rms scatter of ∼0.2 dex is considered. This opens up the possibility of using the high-accretor Mg ii-based radius–luminosity relation for constraining cosmological parameters. With the current sample of 27 reverberation-mapped sources, the best-fit cosmological parameters (Ωm, ΩΛ) = (0.19; 0.62) are consistent with the standard cosmological model within the 1σ confidence level.