Résumé / Abstract Journal-club_Hautes_Energies

Séminaire Hautes Energies /
Seminar High Energy

« The origin of black hole-black hole mergers. The isolated binary evolution scenario »

Aleksandra Olejak
Copernicus Astron. Center (CAMK) (Varsovie, Pologne)

Binary black hole mergers strongly dominate the gravitational wave (GW) signals which are being detected by LIGO/Virgo instruments. So far, over 50 black hole – black hole (BH-BH) mergers have been publicly announced together with the basic parameters estimates such as their masses and effective spins. The origin of those mergers is however still an open question, as there are several potential formation scenarios which could reconstruct the parameters of GW detections. Two popular proposed formation channels are the isolated binary evolution in the galactic fields and the dynamical interactions in the globular clusters.
In my talk, I will focus on the isolated binary evolution channel and how the changes in highly uncertain assumptions on RLOF physics may significantly affect the dominant evolutionary formation scenarios of BH-BH mergers. The two possible formation scenarios, with and without a common envelope phase, produce a significantly different population of BH-BH mergers in terms of their masses, mass ratios and spin distributions. In my talk, I will also show how the isolated binary evolution channel may potentially reproduce LIGO/Virgo detections having the dominant fraction of low spinning BH-BH mergers together with a moderate fraction (~10%) of BH-BH mergers with high effective spin parameter.
mardi 9 novembre 2021 - 14:00
Salle du Conseil
Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
Pages web du séminaire / Seminar's webpage