Where Are LIGO’s Big Black Holes?
Where Are LIGO’s Big Black Holes?
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DOI：
10.3847/2041-8213/aa9bf6
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发表时间：
2017-09
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
M. Fishbach;D. Holz
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文献类型：
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作者：
M. Fishbach;D. Holz
在LIGO的O 1和O2观测运行中，探测器对恒星质量的双星黑洞（BBH）合并敏感，其组件质量高达，其中主要质量超过的双星占总可访问敏感体积的90%。尽管如此，在LIGO-Virgo报告的5.9个探测中（GW 150914，LVT 151012，GW 151226，GW 170104，GW 170608和GW 170814），探测到的质量最大的双星是GW 150914，其主要成分质量为，远低于探测质量极限。此外，有理论论据支持上质量间隙，预测在质量范围内不存在黑洞。我们认为，没有检测到的二元系统与组件的质量比可能是初步的证据，这个上质量差距。通过允许的质量差距的存在下，我们发现较弱的约束的基础质量分布的BBHs的形状。我们拟合幂律分布与上质量截止到真实的和模拟BBH质量测量，发现前3.9 BBH有利于浅幂律斜率和上质量截止。这种推断的分布与最近报告的两个检测结果GW 170608和GW 170814完全一致。我们表明，与1000个额外的LIGO-Virgo BBH检测，拟合BH质量分布将提供强有力的证据，上部质量差距，如果存在的。
In LIGO’s O1 and O2 observational runs, the detectors were sensitive to stellar-mass binary black hole (BBH) coalescences with component masses up to , with binaries with primary masses above representing ≳90% of the total accessible sensitive volume. Nonetheless, of the 5.9 detections (GW150914, LVT151012, GW151226, GW170104, GW170608, and GW170814) reported by LIGO-Virgo, the most massive binary detected was GW150914 with a primary component mass of , far below the detection mass limit. Furthermore, there are theoretical arguments in favor of an upper mass gap, predicting an absence of black holes in the mass range . We argue that the absence of detected binary systems with component masses heavier than may be preliminary evidence for this upper mass gap. By allowing for the presence of a mass gap, we find weaker constraints on the shape of the underlying mass distribution of BBHs. We fit a power-law distribution with an upper mass cutoff to real and simulated BBH mass measurements, finding that the first 3.9 BBHs favor shallow power-law slopes and an upper mass cutoff . This inferred distribution is entirely consistent with the two recently reported detections, GW170608 and GW170814. We show that with ∼10 additional LIGO-Virgo BBH detections, fitting the BH mass distribution will provide strong evidence for an upper mass gap if one exists.