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Title: Compact binary merger rates: Comparison with LIGO/Virgo upper limits

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [5];  [6];  [1]
  1. Warsaw Univ., Warsaw (Poland)
  2. Radboud Univ. Nijmegen, Nijmegen (The Netherlands)
  3. Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
  4. Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY (United States)
  5. Univ. of Mississippi, University, MS (United States); Univ. de Lisboa, Lisboa (Portugal)
  6. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Here, we compare evolutionary predictions of double compact object merger rate densities with initial and forthcoming LIGO/Virgo upper limits. We find that: (i) Due to the cosmological reach of advanced detectors, current conversion methods of population synthesis predictions into merger rate densities are insufficient. (ii) Our optimistic models are a factor of 18 below the initial LIGO/Virgo upper limits for BH–BH systems, indicating that a modest increase in observational sensitivity (by a factor of ~2.5) may bring the first detections or first gravitational wave constraints on binary evolution. (iii) Stellar-origin massive BH–BH mergers should dominate event rates in advanced LIGO/Virgo and can be detected out to redshift z sime 2 with templates including inspiral, merger, and ringdown. Normal stars ($$\lt 150\;{M}_{\odot }$$) can produce such mergers with total redshifted mass up to $${M}_{{\rm{tot,z}}}\simeq 400\;{M}_{\odot }$$. (iv) High black hole (BH) natal kicks can severely limit the formation of massive BH–BH systems (both in isolated binary and in dynamical dense cluster evolution), and thus would eliminate detection of these systems even at full advanced LIGO/Virgo sensitivity. We find that low and high BH natal kicks are allowed by current observational electromagnetic constraints. (v) The majority of our models yield detections of all types of mergers (NS–NS, BH–NS, BH–BH) with advanced detectors. Numerous massive BH–BH merger detections will indicate small (if any) natal kicks for massive BHs.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1296670
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-15-27496
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 819, Issue 2; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 169 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
astronomy and astrophysics
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