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We compare the event rate density detected by LIGO to the comoving number density of isolated stellar progenitors and find a range for their formation redshift. Our limit depends on the threshold mass for making the black holes (BHs) but only weakly on the metallicity of their progenitor. If $10 %$ of all BHs are in coalescing binaries, then enough progenitors have formed by $ 2< z_f < 9 $.
The dynamical formation of stellar-mass black hole-black hole binaries has long been a promising source of gravitational waves for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Mass segregation, gravitational focusing, and multibody dynamical interactions naturally increase the interaction rate between the most massive black holes in dense stellar systems, eventually leading them to merge. We find that dynamical interactions, particularly three-body binary formation, enhance the merger rate of black hole binaries with total mass M_tot roughly as ~M_tot^beta, with beta >~ 4. We find that this relation holds mostly independently of the initial mass function, but the exact value depends on the degree of mass segregation. The detection rate of such massive black hole binaries is only further enhanced by LIGOs greater sensitivity to massive black hole binaries with M_tot <~ 80 solar masses. We find that for power-law BH mass functions dN/dM ~ M^-alpha with alpha <~ 2, LIGO is most likely to detect black hole binaries with a mass twice that of the maximum initial black hole mass and a mass ratio near one. Repeated mergers of black holes inside the cluster result in about ~5% of mergers being observed between two and three times the maximum initial black hole mass. Using these relations, one may be able to invert the observed distribution to the initial mass function with multiple detections of merging black hole binaries.
We present the first simulations of the tidal disruption of stars with realistic structures and compositions by massive black holes (BHs). We build stars in the stellar evolution code MESA and simulate their disruption in the 3D adaptive-mesh hydrodynamics code FLASH, using an extended Helmholtz equation of state and tracking 49 elements. We study the disruption of a 1$M_odot$ star and 3$M_odot$ star at zero-age main sequence (ZAMS), middle-age, and terminal-age main sequence (TAMS). The maximum BH mass for tidal disruption increases by a factor of $sim$2 from stellar radius changes due to MS evolution; this is equivalent to varying BH spin from 0 to 0.75. The shape of the mass fallback rate curves is different from the results for polytropes of Guillochon & Ramirez-Ruiz (2013). The peak timescale $t_{rm peak}$ increases with stellar age, while the peak fallback rate $dot M_{rm peak}$ decreases with age, and these effects diminish with increasing impact parameter $beta$. For a $beta=1$ disruption of a 1$M_odot$ star by a $10^6 M_odot$ BH, from ZAMS to TAMS, $t_{rm peak}$ increases from 30 to 54 days, while $dot M_{rm peak}$ decreases from 0.66 to 0.14 $M_odot$/yr. Compositional anomalies in nitrogen, helium, and carbon can occur before the peak timescale for disruptions of MS stars, which is in contrast to predictions from the frozen-in model. More massive stars can show stronger anomalies at earlier times, meaning that compositional constraints can be key in determining the mass of the disrupted star. The abundance anomalies predicted by these simulations provide a natural explanation for the spectral features and varying line strengths observed in tidal disruption events.
Massive black holes (MBHs) are nowadays recognized as integral parts of galaxy evolution. Both the approximate proportionality between MBH and galaxy mass, and the expected importance of feedback from active MBHs in regulating star formation in their host galaxies point to a strong interplay between MBHs and galaxies. MBHs must form in the first galaxies and be fed by gas in these galaxies, with continuous or intermittent inflows that, at times, can be larger than the Eddington rate. Feedback from supernovae and from the MBHs themselves modulates the growth of the first MBHs. While current observational data only probe the most massive and luminous MBHs, the tip of the iceberg, we will soon be able to test theoretical models of MBH evolution on more normal MBHs: the MBHs that are indeed relevant in building the population that we observe in local galaxies, including our own Milky Way.
We analyse the LIGO-Virgo data, including the recently released GWTC-2 dataset, to test a hypothesis that the data contains more than one population of black holes. We perform a maximum likelihood analysis including a population of astrophysical black holes with a truncated power-law mass function whose merger rate follows from star formation rate, and a population of primordial black holes for which we consider log-normal and critical collapse mass functions. We find that primordial black holes alone are strongly disfavoured by the data, while the best fit is obtained for the template combining astrophysical and primordial merger rates. Alternatively, the data may hint towards two different astrophysical black hole populations. We also update the constraints on primordial black hole abundance from LIGO-Virgo observations finding that in the $2-400 M_{odot}$ mass range, they must comprise less than 0.2% of dark matter.
We derive the first constraints on the time delay distribution of binary black hole (BBH) mergers using the LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog GWTC-2. Assuming that the progenitor formation rate follows the star formation rate (SFR), the data favor that $43$--$100%$ of mergers have delay times $<4.5$ Gyr (90% credibility). Adopting a model for the metallicity evolution, we derive joint constraints for the metallicity-dependence of the BBH formation efficiency and the distribution of time delays between formation and merger. Short time delays are favored regardless of the assumed metallicity dependence, although the preference for short delays weakens as we consider stricter low-metallicity thresholds for BBH formation. For a $p(tau) propto tau^{-1}$ time delay distribution and a progenitor formation rate that follows the SFR without metallicity dependence, we find that $tau_mathrm{min}<2.2$ Gyr, whereas considering only the low-metallicity $Z < 0.3,Z_odot$ SFR, $tau_mathrm{min} < 3.0$ Gyr (90% credibility). Alternatively, if we assume long time delays, the progenitor formation rate must peak at higher redshifts than the SFR. For example, for a $p(tau) propto tau^{-1}$ time delay distribution with $tau_mathrm{min} = 4$ Gyr, the inferred progenitor rate peaks at $z > 3.9$ (90% credibility). Finally, we explore whether the inferred formation rate and time delay distribution vary with BBH mass.