TY - JOUR

T1 - Population Properties of Compact Objects from the Second LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog

AU - LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration

AU - Pitkin, M

PY - 2021/5/19

Y1 - 2021/5/19

N2 - We report on the population of 47 compact binary mergers detected with a false-alarm rate of <1 yr -1 in the second LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog. We observe several characteristics of the merging binary black hole (BBH) population not discernible until now. First, the primary mass spectrum contains structure beyond a power law with a sharp high-mass cutoff; it is more consistent with a broken power law with a break at 39.7 - + 9.1 20.3 M? or a power law with a Gaussian feature peaking at 33.1 - + 5.6 4.0 M? (90% credible interval). While the primary mass distribution must extend to ~65 M? or beyond, only 2.9 - + 1.7 3.5% of systems have primary masses greater than 45 M?. Second, we find that a fraction of BBH systems have component spins misaligned with the orbital angular momentum, giving rise to precession of the orbital plane. Moreover,12%-44% of BBH systems have spins tilted by more than 90°, giving rise to a negative effective inspiral spin parameter, c eff. Under the assumption that such systems can only be formed by dynamical interactions, we infer that between 25% and 93% of BBHs with nonvanishing c eff| > 0.01 are dynamically assembled. Third, we estimate merger rates, finding R BBH = 23.9 - + 8.6 14.3 Gpc -3 yr -1 for BBHs and R BNS = 320 - + 240 490 Gpc -3 yr -1 for binary neutron stars. We find that the BBH rate likely increases with redshift (85% credibility) but not faster than the star formation rate (86% credibility). Additionally, we examine recent exceptional events in the context of our population models, finding that the asymmetric masses of GW190412 and the high component masses of GW190521 are consistent with our models, but the low secondary mass of GW190814 makes it an outlier.

AB - We report on the population of 47 compact binary mergers detected with a false-alarm rate of <1 yr -1 in the second LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog. We observe several characteristics of the merging binary black hole (BBH) population not discernible until now. First, the primary mass spectrum contains structure beyond a power law with a sharp high-mass cutoff; it is more consistent with a broken power law with a break at 39.7 - + 9.1 20.3 M? or a power law with a Gaussian feature peaking at 33.1 - + 5.6 4.0 M? (90% credible interval). While the primary mass distribution must extend to ~65 M? or beyond, only 2.9 - + 1.7 3.5% of systems have primary masses greater than 45 M?. Second, we find that a fraction of BBH systems have component spins misaligned with the orbital angular momentum, giving rise to precession of the orbital plane. Moreover,12%-44% of BBH systems have spins tilted by more than 90°, giving rise to a negative effective inspiral spin parameter, c eff. Under the assumption that such systems can only be formed by dynamical interactions, we infer that between 25% and 93% of BBHs with nonvanishing c eff| > 0.01 are dynamically assembled. Third, we estimate merger rates, finding R BBH = 23.9 - + 8.6 14.3 Gpc -3 yr -1 for BBHs and R BNS = 320 - + 240 490 Gpc -3 yr -1 for binary neutron stars. We find that the BBH rate likely increases with redshift (85% credibility) but not faster than the star formation rate (86% credibility). Additionally, we examine recent exceptional events in the context of our population models, finding that the asymmetric masses of GW190412 and the high component masses of GW190521 are consistent with our models, but the low secondary mass of GW190814 makes it an outlier.

KW - Gravitational waves

KW - Astrophysical black holes

KW - Stellar mass black holes

KW - Massive stars

KW - Compact objects

KW - Bayesian statistics

KW - 678

KW - 98

KW - 1611

KW - 732

KW - 288

KW - 1900

U2 - 10.3847/2041-8213/abe949

DO - 10.3847/2041-8213/abe949

M3 - Journal article

VL - 913

SP - L7

JO - Astrophysical Journal Letters

JF - Astrophysical Journal Letters

SN - 2041-8205

IS - 1

M1 - L7

ER -