2020/10/01 by Joshua Ziegler, Katherine Freese
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Black hole (networking) #Energy (signal processing) #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Gravitational wave #Instability #LIGO #Neutron star #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Star (game theory) #Star formation #Stars #Stellar mass #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Supernova #astro-ph.HE #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.104.043015
published as Phys. Rev. D 104, 043015 (2021) · 20 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables
arxiv created 2020/10/01 · openalex created_date 2020/10/08 · openalex publication_date 2021/08/17 · arxiv updated 2021/08/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In standard stellar evolution, stars with masses ranging from approximately 150 M_\ensuremath\bigodot to 240 M_\ensuremath\bigodot are expected to evolve to a pair-instability supernova with no black hole (BH) remnant. This evolutionary behavior leads to a predicted gap in the black hole mass function from approximately 50 M_\ensuremath\bigodot to 140 M_\ensuremath\bigodot. Yet the LIGO and Virgo collaborations [Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 101102 (2020)] recently discovered black holes with masses of 66 M_\ensuremath\bigodot and 85 M_\ensuremath\bigodot in the gravitational-wave event GW190521. We propose a new method to populate the BH mass gap. If an energy source is added throughout the star in addition to nuclear fusion, it is possible for the altered evolution to avoid the complete destruction of a pair-instability supernova, and instead a BH remnant is left behind. An example of an extra energy source is dark matter annihilation within the star, but our results hold more generally. We show this phenomenon by exploring the effect of adding an energy source independent of temperature and density to a 180 M_\ensuremath\bigodot star, using the mesa one-dimensional stellar evolution software. If\ensuremath∼50% of the star's energy is due to this new source, the star is capable of avoiding the pair instability entirely, reaching a presupernova mass of 119 M_\ensuremath\bigodot before evolving into a BH remnant in the mass gap.