On the Formation of GW231123 in Population III Star Clusters

2025/10/07 by Shuai Liu, Long Wang, Liu, Shuai +7 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2510.05634

openalex publication_date 2025/10/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

GW231123 is a binary black hole merger whose primary component lies within or above the pair-instability mass gap, while the secondary component falls within this gap. The standard theory of stellar evolution is significantly challenged by this event. We investigate the formation of candidate progenitors of GW231123 in Population III (Pop III) star clusters. We find that they could form through stellar mergers, binary black hole mergers, and mixed mergers. The mass distribution of these candidate progenitors covers the component masses of GW231123. Under our model assumptions, their predicted merger rate density spans the range of 0.001-0.26\rm Gpc^-3yr^-1, encompassing that of GW231123. These findings suggest that GW231123 may originate from Pop III star clusters. Furthermore, such candidate progenitors are expected to be detectable by future gravitational wave detectors LISA/Taiji/TianQin/DECIGO/Cosmic Explorer/Einstein Telescope, which would provide valuable insights into the formation scenarios of events like GW231123.

Citations

• Resolving Black Hole Family Issues Among the Massive Ancestors of Very High-Spin Gravitational-Wave Events Like GW231123
• Pair-Instability Gap Black Holes in Population III Star Clusters: Pathways, Dynamics, and Gravitational Wave Implications
• Contribution of Population III Stars to Merging Binary Black Holes
• Impact of radiative feedback on the initial mass function of metal-poor stars
• Impact of gas hardening on the population properties of hierarchical black hole mergers in AGN disks
• Pulsational pair-instability supernovae in gravitational-wave and electromagnetic transients
• The Dragon-II simulations -- II. Formation mechanisms, mass, and spin of intermediate-mass black holes in star clusters with up to 1 million stars
• GW190425, GW190521 and GW190814: Three candidate mergers of primordial black holes from the QCD epoch

Cited by

• GW241011 and GW241110: Hints of Hierarchical Mergers from the Merger Entropy Index
• Is GW231123 a hierarchical merger?
• Assembling GW231123 in star clusters through the combination of stellar binary evolution and hierarchical mergers
• Beyond Hierarchical Mergers: Accretion-Driven Origins of Massive, Highly Spinning Black Holes in Dense Star Clusters
• GW231123 Formation from Population III Stars: Isolated Binary Evolution
• GW231123: Likely a product of successive mergers from ∼ 10 stellar-mass black holes

Related

• GW231123 Formation from Population III Stars: Isolated Binary Evolution
• Constraint on the progenitor of binary black hole merger using Population III star formation channel
• Pair-Instability Gap Black Holes in Population III Star Clusters: Pathways, Dynamics, and Gravitational Wave Implications
• Assembling GW231123 in star clusters through the combination of stellar binary evolution and hierarchical mergers
• Resolving Black Hole Family Issues Among the Massive Ancestors of Very High-Spin Gravitational-Wave Events Like GW231123