Cover Your Basis: Comprehensive Data-driven Characterization of the Binary Black Hole Population
Cover Your Basis: Comprehensive Data-driven Characterization of the Binary Black Hole Population
复制标题
DOI：
10.3847/1538-4357/acb5ed
复制
发表时间：
2022-10
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
B. Edelman;B. Farr;Zoheyr Doctor
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
B. Edelman;B. Farr;Zoheyr Doctor
我们引入了第一个完整的双黑洞（BBH）群体天体物理分布非参数模型。我们使用这些模型以基本样条为基础，对 BBH 群体进行迄今为止最全面的数据驱动研究，同时拟合 BBH 质量比、自旋幅度和错位以及红移分布的非参数模型。通过 GWTC-3，我们报告了之前通过类似灵活的质量分布模型恢复的相同特征，最显着的是在初级质量 ∼10M ⊙ 和 ∼35M ⊙ 处的合并率峰值。我们的模型报告了低初级质量下的抑制合并率和符合幂律的质量比分布。我们推断出初级自旋错位的分布，其峰值远离对齐，支持了最近工作的结论。我们发现与之前关于自旋幅度分布的推论有广泛的一致性：大多数 BBH 自旋都很小（a < 0.5），分布峰值在 a ∼ 0.2，并且对非自旋子群有轻微的支持，这可以通过更大的目录来解决。通过描述 BBH 合并速率红移演化的调制幂律，我们看到速率演化在 z ∼ 0.2-0.5 处趋于平坦或减小的迹象，但完整分布仍然与单调递增幂律完全一致。最后，我们讨论了我们新发现的天体物理学背景，以及当我们进入引力波天文学数据丰富的时代时，引力波布居推断中的非参数方法如何独特地补充参数方法。
We introduce the first complete nonparametric model for the astrophysical distribution of the binary black hole (BBH) population. Constructed from basis splines, we use these models to conduct the most comprehensive data-driven investigation of the BBH population to date, simultaneously fitting nonparametric models for the BBH mass ratio, spin magnitude and misalignment, and redshift distributions. With GWTC-3, we report the same features previously recovered with similarly flexible models of the mass distribution, most notably the peaks in merger rates at primary masses of ∼10M ⊙ and ∼35M ⊙. Our model reports a suppressed merger rate at low primary masses and a mass-ratio distribution consistent with a power law. We infer a distribution for primary spin misalignments that peaks away from alignment, supporting conclusions of recent work. We find broad agreement with the previous inferences of the spin magnitude distribution: the majority of BBH spins are small (a < 0.5), the distribution peaks at a ∼ 0.2, and there is mild support for a nonspinning subpopulation, which may be resolved with larger catalogs. With a modulated power law describing the BBH merger rate’s evolution in redshift, we see hints of the rate evolution either flattening or decreasing at z ∼ 0.2–0.5, but the full distribution remains entirely consistent with a monotonically increasing power law. We conclude with a discussion of the astrophysical context of our new findings and how nonparametric methods in gravitational-wave population inference are uniquely poised to complement to the parametric approach as we enter the data-rich era of gravitational-wave astronomy.