2018/05/31 by Carl L. Rodriguez, Fabio Antonini
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Binary black hole #Binary number #Black hole (networking) #Eccentricity (behavior) #Field (mathematics) #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Population #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Spins #Stellar mass #Yield (engineering) #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aacea4
published as The Astrophysical Journal, 863, 1, 2018 · 18 Pages, 13 Figures, Accepted ApJ. Section 2 is most interesting to dynamicists, while Sections 5 and 6 are most interesting to gravitational-wave astronomers
openalex created_date 2018/06/01 · arxiv created 2018/08/06 · openalex publication_date 2018/08/06 · arxiv updated 2018/08/07 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Abstract We explore the masses, merger rates, eccentricities, and spins for field binary black holes (BHs) driven to merger by a third companion through the Lidov–Kozai mechanism. Using a population synthesis approach, we model the creation of stellar-mass BH triples across a range of different initial conditions and stellar metallicities. We find that the production of triple-mediated mergers is enhanced at low metallicities by a factor of ∼100 due to the lower BH natal kicks and reduced stellar mass loss. These triples naturally yield heavy binary BHs with near-zero effective spins, consistent with most of the mergers observed to date. This process produces a merger rate of between 2 and 25 Gpc −3 yr −1 in the local universe, suggesting that the Lidov–Kozai mechanism can potentially explain all of the low-spin, heavy BH mergers observed by Advanced LIGO/Virgo. Finally, we show that triples admit a unique eccentricity and spin distribution that will allow this model to be tested in the near future.