2015/06/11 by S. E. de Mink, Krzysztof Belczyński, de Mink, S. E. +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) #astro-ph.HE #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1506.03573
Accepted for publication in ApJ
openalex publication_date 2015/06/11 · arxiv created 2015/10/06 · arxiv updated 2015/10/07 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The initial mass function (IMF), binary fraction and distributions of binary parameters (mass ratios, separations and eccentricities) are indispensable input for simulations of stellar populations. It is often claimed that these are poorly constrained significantly affecting evolutionary predictions. Recently, dedicated observing campaigns provided new constraints on the initial conditions for massive stars. Findings include a larger close binary fraction and a stronger preference for very tight systems. We investigate the impact on the predicted merger rates of neutron stars and black holes. Despite the changes with previous assumptions, we only find an increase of less than a factor 2 (insignificant compared with evolutionary uncertainties of typically a factor 10-100). We further show that the uncertainties in the new initial binary properties do not significantly affect (within a factor of 2) our predictions of double compact object merger rates. An exception is the uncertainty in IMF (variations by a factor of 6 up and down). No significant changes in the distributions of final component masses, mass ratios, chirp masses and delay times are found. We conclude that the predictions are, for practical purposes, robust against uncertainties in the initial conditions concerning binary parameters with exception of the IMF. This eliminates an important layer of the many uncertain assumptions affecting the predictions of merger detection rates with the gravitational wave detectors aLIGO/aVirgo.