Dropping Anchor: Understanding the Populations of Binary Black Holes with Random and Aligned-spin Orientations

Baibhav, Vishal; Doctor, Z.; Kalogera, V.

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acbf4c

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 86 publications

(136 reference statements)

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“…The possibility of the observed anticorrelation being a result of the amalgamation paradox (see the discussion in Section 1) remains a point of interest. Baibhav et al (2023), for instance, show that when modeling field-like and dynamical-like subpopulations in physical spin coordinates, the two subpopulations prefer different distributions of mass ratio, which could drive such an effect. Although Baibhav et al (2023) emphasize that we are unable to distinguish between multiple subpopulations in the marginal distribution of χ eff (a point further exemplified in nonparametric population studies; Callister & Farr 2023;Edelman & Farr 2023), it remains possible that more clearly separated subpopulations could be seen in the q-χ eff plane.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A number of previous studies have looked for covariance between various parameters describing the BBH population (Safarzadeh et al 2020;Callister et al 2021;Fishbach et al 2021;Adamcewicz & Thrane 2022;Belczynski et al 2022;Biscoveanu et al 2022;Franciolini & Pani 2022;Hoy et al 2022;Tiwari 2022;Vitale et al 2022;Wang et al 2022;Baibhav et al 2023;Ray et al 2023). In particular, Callister et al (2021) argued that the data support an anticorrelation between mass ratio º ( ) q m m , 1 2 1 and effective inspiral spin (Damour 2001)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evidence for a Correlation between Binary Black Hole Mass Ratio and Black Hole Spins

Adamcewicz,

Lasky,

Thrane

2023

ApJ

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The astrophysical origins of the binary black hole systems seen with gravitational waves are still not well understood. However, features in the distribution of black hole masses, spins, redshifts, and eccentricities provide clues into how these systems form. Much has been learned by investigating these distributions one parameter at a time. However, we can extract additional information by studying the covariance between pairs of parameters. Previous work has shown preliminary support for an anticorrelation between mass ratio q ≡ m 2/m 1 and effective inspiral spin χ eff in the binary black hole population. In this study, we test for the existence of this anticorrelation using updated data from the third gravitational-wave transient catalog and improve our copula-based framework to employ a more robust model for black hole spins. We find evidence for an anticorrelation in (q, χ eff) with 99.7% credibility. This may imply high common-envelope efficiencies, stages of super-Eddington accretion, or a tendency for binary black hole systems to undergo mass-ratio reversal during isolated evolution. Covariance in (q, χ eff) may also be used to investigate the physics of tidal spinup as well as the properties of binary black hole–forming active galactic nuclei.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for a Correlation between Binary Black Hole Mass Ratio and Black Hole Spins

Adamcewicz,

Lasky,

Thrane

2023

ApJ

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“…Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Zevin & Bavera 2022;Baibhav et al 2023;Ray et al 2023) have been investigated to elucidate the contribution of the various proposed BBH formation channels, although a robust conclusion is still far from being reached.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spin Doctors: How to Diagnose a Hierarchical Merger Origin

Payne,

Kremer,

Zevin

2024

ApJL

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Gravitational-wave observations provide the unique opportunity of studying black hole formation channels and histories—but only if we can identify their origin. One such formation mechanism is the dynamical synthesis of black hole binaries in dense stellar systems. Given the expected isotropic distribution of component spins of binary black holes in gas-free dynamical environments, the presence of antialigned or in-plane spins with respect to the orbital angular momentum is considered a tell-tale sign of a merger’s dynamical origin. Even in the scenario where birth spins of black holes are low, hierarchical mergers attain large component spins due to the orbital angular momentum of the prior merger. However, measuring such spin configurations is difficult. Here, we quantify the efficacy of the spin parameters encoding aligned-spin (χ eff) and in-plane spin (χ p ) at classifying such hierarchical systems. Using Monte Carlo cluster simulations to generate a realistic distribution of hierarchical merger parameters from globular clusters, we can infer mergers’ χ eff and χ p . The cluster populations are simulated using Advanced LIGO-Virgo sensitivity during the detector network’s third observing period and projections for design sensitivity. Using a “likelihood-ratio”-based statistic, we find that ∼2% of the recovered population by the current gravitational-wave detector network has a statistically significant χ p measurement, whereas no χ eff measurement was capable of confidently determining a system to be antialigned with the orbital angular momentum at current detector sensitivities. These results indicate that measuring spin-precession through χ p is a more detectable signature of hierarchical mergers and dynamical formation than antialigned spins.

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“…On the positive side, if a parameter can be reliably measured, it often has a clear connection with a meaningful astrophysical quantity (e.g., the slope of a mass power law). Heuristic models also allow correlations between parameters to be probed in a straightforward manner (Callister et al 2021;Adamcewicz & Thrane 2022;Biscoveanu et al 2022;Vitale et al 2022a;Baibhav et al 2023). 2.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You: Use and Abuse of Astrophysical Models in Gravitational-wave Population Analyses

Cheng,

Zevin,

Vitale

2023

ApJ

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One of the goals of gravitational-wave astrophysics is to infer the number and properties of the formation channels of binary black holes (BBHs); to do so, one must be able to connect various models with the data. We explore benefits and potential issues with analyses using models informed by population synthesis. We consider five possible formation channels of BBHs, as in Zevin et al. (2021b). First, we confirm with the GWTC-3 catalog what Zevin et al. (2021b) found in the GWTC-2 catalog, i.e., that the data are not consistent with the totality of observed BBHs forming in any single channel. Next, using simulated detections, we show that the uncertainties in the estimation of the branching ratios can shrink by up to a factor of ∼1.7 as the catalog size increases from 50 to 250, within the expected number of BBH detections in LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA's fourth observing run. Finally, we show that this type of analysis is prone to significant biases. By simulating universes where all sources originate from a single channel, we show that the influence of the Bayesian prior can make it challenging to conclude that one channel produces all signals. Furthermore, by simulating universes where all five channels contribute but only a subset of channels are used in the analysis, we show that biases in the branching ratios can be as large as ∼50% with 250 detections. This suggests that caution should be used when interpreting the results of analyses based on strongly modeled astrophysical subpopulations.

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Dropping Anchor: Understanding the Populations of Binary Black Holes with Random and Aligned-spin Orientations

Cited by 9 publications

References 86 publications

Evidence for a Correlation between Binary Black Hole Mass Ratio and Black Hole Spins

Evidence for a Correlation between Binary Black Hole Mass Ratio and Black Hole Spins

Spin Doctors: How to Diagnose a Hierarchical Merger Origin

What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You: Use and Abuse of Astrophysical Models in Gravitational-wave Population Analyses

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