Maximum black hole mass across cosmic time

Vink, J. S.; Higgins, Erin R.; Sander, A. A. C.; Sabhahit, Gautham N.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stab842

Cited by 102 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…This parameter a may be used to quantify the number of black holes that are the result of PPISN, as well as identify a mass for which PPISN becomes important, as shown in more detail in Appendix A. The parameterization in Equation (3) is sufficiently flexible to account for many different effects that might impact the onset of PPISN and thereby lead to a smooth change in the value of M BHMG , such as variations in metallicity or wind-loss rate (Farmer et al 2019;Vink et al 2021), a change in the nuclear reaction rates (Farmer et al 2019(Farmer et al , 2020Woosley & Heger 2021), or new physics (Croon et al 2020(Croon et al , 2021Sakstein et al 2020;Straight et al 2020;Ziegler & Freese 2020).…”

Section: Astrophysical Mass Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Find the Gap: Black Hole Population Analysis with an Astrophysically Motivated Mass Function

Baxter

Croon

McDermott

et al. 2021

ApJL

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We introduce a novel black hole mass function that realistically models the physics of pair-instability supernovae with a minimal number of parameters. Applying this to all events in the LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog 2 (GWTC-2), we detect a peak at. Repeating the analysis without the black holes from the event GW190521, we find this feature at M BHMG = 54 ± 6 M e . These results establish the edge of the anticipated "black hole mass gap" at a value compatible with the expectation from standard stellar structure theory. The mass gap manifests itself as a discontinuity in the mass function and is populated by a distinct, less-abundant population of higher-mass black holes. We find that the primary black hole population scales with power-law index −1.95 ± 0.51 (−1.97 ± 0.44) with (without) GW190521, consistent with models of star formation. Using Bayesian techniques, we establish that our mass function fits a new catalog of black hole masses approximately as well as pre-existing phenomenological mass functions. We also remark on the implications of these results for constraining or discovering new phenomena in nuclear and particle physics. Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts: Astrophysical black holes (98); Black holes (162); Gravitational waves (678); Particle astrophysics (96); Gravitational wave astronomy (675); Nuclear astrophysics (1129); Stellar evolution (1599); Stellar populations (1622); Population III stars (1285); Helium burning (716)

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Section: Astrophysical Mass Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Find the Gap: Black Hole Population Analysis with an Astrophysically Motivated Mass Function

Baxter

Croon

McDermott

et al. 2021

ApJL

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“…Black holes of ∼45-135M e are not typically expected to form via standard stellar evolution as the pair-instability process either limits the maximum mass of the progenitor star's core or completely disrupts the star entirely (Fryer et al 2001;Heger & Woosley 2002;Belczynski et al 2016;Spera & Mapelli 2017;Farmer et al 2019;Stevenson et al 2019;Farmer et al 2020;Woosley & Heger 2021). Potential (non-mutually exclusive) astrophysical formation mechanisms for black holes in this mass gap include hierarchical mergers, where the remnant of a previous merger becomes part of a new binary (Miller & Hamilton 2002;Antonini & Rasio 2016;Gerosa & Berti 2017;Rodriguez et al 2019;Yang et al 2019;Anagnostou et al 2020;Fragione & Silk 2020;Mapelli et al 2020;Fragione et al 2020a;Banerjee 2021); stellar mergers, which may result in a larger hydrogen envelope around a core below the pairinstability threshold (Spera et al 2018;Kremer et al 2020;Di Carlo et al 2020a;González et al 2021); formation of black holes from Population III stars that are able to retain their hydrogen envelopes (Farrell et al 2021; Kinugawa et al 2021;Vink et al 2021), formation via stellar triples in the field (Vigna-Gómez et al 2021); growth via accretion in an active galactic nucleus (AGN) disk (McKernan et al 2012;Michaely & Perets 2020;Secunda et al 2020;Tagawa et al 2020), or growth via rapid gas accretion in dense primordial clusters (Roupas & Kazanas 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for Hierarchical Black Hole Mergers in the Second LIGO–Virgo Gravitational Wave Catalog

Kimball

Talbot

Berry

et al. 2021

ApJL

115

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We study the population properties of merging binary black holes in the second LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog assuming they were all formed dynamically in gravitationally bound clusters. Using a phenomenological population model, we infer the mass and spin distribution of first-generation black holes, while self-consistently accounting for hierarchical mergers. Considering a range of cluster masses, we see compelling evidence for hierarchical mergers in clusters with escape velocities 100 km s −1 . For our most probable cluster mass, we find that the catalog contains at least one second-generation merger with 99% credibility. We find that the hierarchical model is preferred over an alternative model with no hierarchical mergers (Bayes factor >  1400) and that GW190521 is favored to contain two second-generation black holes with odds >  700, and GW190519, GW190602, GW190620, and GW190706 are mixed-generation binaries with >  10. However, our results depend strongly on the cluster escape velocity, with more modest evidence for hierarchical mergers when the escape velocity is 100 km s −1 . Assuming that all binary black holes are formed dynamically in globular clusters with escape velocities on the order of tens of km s −1 , GW190519 and GW190521 are favored to include a second-generation black hole with odds >  1. In this case, we find that 99% of black holes from the inferred total population have masses that are less than 49M e , and that this constraint is robust to our choice of prior on the maximum black hole mass.Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts: Gravitational wave sources (677); Gravitational wave astronomy (675); Astrophysical black holes (98); Hierarchical models (1925)

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“…The tremendous number (50 in GWTC-2) of gravitational waves (GWs) detected by LIGO since 2015 (Abbott et al 2016a,b) gives a sense of how urgent and important it is to characterize the properties of their progenitors, i.e., dense compact objects like Neutron Stars (NSs) and Black Holes (BHs), and to study both their formation and evolutionary channels. Moreover, the recent discovery of a ∼150 M BH (the first secure detection of an intermediate-mass black hole, Abbott et al 2020a,b) as the coalescence product of two very massive BHs (60 M and 85 M , respectively) has challenged our understanding of stellar evolution in massive stars (Vink et al 2021), moving the focus to high-density environments like massive stellar clusters, where merger cascades are most likely to happen (see the recent review by Gerosa & Fishbach 2021). BHs, however, are elusive objects, and apart from GW emission of coalescing bi-★ E-mail: s.saracino@ljmu.ac.uk nary BHs, we have only two ways to detect them: indirectly, via the radio, X-ray or gamma ray emissions of matter accreting onto them, or directly, by studying the orbital motion of a visible companion orbiting around it in a binary system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A black hole detected in the young massive LMC cluster NGC 1850

Saracino

Kamann

Guarcello

et al. 2021

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We report the detection of a black hole (NGC 1850 BH1) in the ∼100 Myr-old massive cluster NGC 1850 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is in a binary system with a main-sequence turn-off star (4.9 ± 0.4 M⊙), which is starting to fill its Roche Lobe and becoming distorted. Using 17 epochs of VLT/MUSE observations we detected radial velocity variations exceeding 300 km s−1 associated to the target star, linked to the ellipsoidal variations measured by OGLE-IV in the optical bands. Under the assumption of a semi-detached system, the simultaneous modelling of radial velocity and light curves constraints the orbital inclination of the binary to (38 ± 2)○, resulting in a true mass of the unseen companion of $11.1_{-2.4}^{+2.1}\, M_{\odot }$. This represents the first direct dynamical detection of a black hole in a young massive cluster, opening up the possibility of studying the initial mass function and the early dynamical evolution of such compact objects in high-density environments.

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Maximum black hole mass across cosmic time

Cited by 102 publications

References 81 publications

Find the Gap: Black Hole Population Analysis with an Astrophysically Motivated Mass Function

Find the Gap: Black Hole Population Analysis with an Astrophysically Motivated Mass Function

Evidence for Hierarchical Black Hole Mergers in the Second LIGO–Virgo Gravitational Wave Catalog

A black hole detected in the young massive LMC cluster NGC 1850

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