Pulsational Pair-instability Supernovae in Very Close Binaries

By P. Marchant, M. Renzo, R. Farmer, K. Pappas, R. Taam, S. D. de Mink, Vicky Kalogera. Astrophysical Journal, 2018

153 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Pair-instability and pulsational pair-instability supernovae (PPISNe) have not been unambiguously observed so far. They are, however, promising candidates for the progenitors of the heaviest binary black hole (BBH) mergers detected. If these BBHs are the product of binary evolution, then PPISNe could occur in very close binaries. Motivated by this, we discuss the implications of a PPISN happening with a close binary companion and what impact these events have on the formation of merging BBHs through binary evolution. For this, we have computed a set of models of metal-poor (Z⊙/10) single helium stars using the MESA software instrument. For PPISN progenitors with pre-pulse masses >50 M⊙ we find that, after a pulse, heat deposited throughout the layers of the star that remain bound causes it to expand to more than 100 R⊙ for periods of 102–104 yr depending on the mass of the progenitor. This results in long-lived phases of Roche lobe overflow or even common-envelope events if there is a close binary companion, leading to additional electromagnetic transients associated with PPISN eruptions. If we ignore the effect of these interactions, we find that mass loss from PPISNe reduces the final BH spin by ∼30%, induces eccentricities below the threshold of detectability of the LISA observatory, and can produce a double-peaked distribution of measured chirp masses in BBH mergers observed by ground-based detectors.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1281dab00092ac10ff385322dba44d16cba2cab0

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Citations in the corpus

GWTC-1: A Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog of Compact Binary Mergers Observed by LIGO and Virgo during the First and Second Observing Runs (2018, background): “To date, no binary components have been observed in either of the two putative mass gaps [132, 133] – one between NSs and BHs and the other one due to pair instability supernovae [130, 203].”
The origin of spin in binary black holes (2019, background): “On the other hand, PPISNe affect pre-supernovae stars with He-core masses between around 35 and 60 M enhancing the loss of mass before the supernova event and resulting in less massive BHs (Yoshida et al. 2016; Woosley 2017; Marchant et al. 2019).”
Evolutionary roads leading to low effective spins, high black hole masses, and O1/O2 rates for LIGO/Virgo binary black holes (2017, background): “…2003; Dominik et al. 2012; Belczynski et al. 2016b; Eldridge & Stanway 2016; Woosley 2016; Stevenson et al. 2017; Kruckow et al. 2018; Hainich et al. 2018; Marchant et al. 2019; Spera et al. 2019) and its outcome was predicted to produce the first LIGO/Virgo sources (Belczynski et al. 2010b).”
COSMIC Variance in Binary Population Synthesis (2019, methodology): “Fit to the grid of simulations from Woosley (2019) (see Table 5), which agree reasonably well with those from Marchant et al. (2019) except that Woosley (2019) find slightly lower helium core masses undergo PPISN.”
One Channel to Rule Them All? Constraining the Origins of Binary Black Holes Using Multiple Formation Pathways (2020, methodology): “For consistency with the other models, we restrict primary masses to the range [0.01, 150] M meaning that, compared to the original study, we ignore systems forming BBHs with components above the pair instability mass gap (e.g., Woosley 2017; Farmer et al. 2019; Marchant et al. 2019).”
4-OGC: Catalog of Gravitational Waves from Compact Binary Mergers (2021, background): “The upper mass gap is expected to occur at ∼50–120 Me(Yoshida et al. 2016; Belczynski et al. 2016; Woosley 2017, 2017; Marchant et al. 2019; Stevenson et al. 2019; van Son et al. 2020).”
Constraints from Gravitational-wave Detections of Binary Black Hole Mergers on the 12C(α, γ)16O Rate (2020, methodology): “We follow the core as it contracts and bounces (Marchant et al. 2019), generating shock waves that we follow through the star until they reach its outer layers.”