On the Rarity of Double Black Hole Binaries: Consequences for Gravitational Wave Detection

By Krzysztof Belczyński, R. Taam, Vicky Kalogera, F. Rasio, T. Bulik. 2006

184 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Double black hole binaries are among the most important sources of gravitational radiation for ground-based detectors such as LIGO or VIRGO. Even if formed with lower efficiency than double neutron star binaries, they could dominate the predicted detection rates, since black holes are more massive than neutron stars and therefore could be detected at greater distances. Here we discuss an evolutionary process that could very significantly limit the formation of close double black hole binaries: the vast majority of their potential progenitors undergo a common-envelope (CE) phase while the donor, one of the massive binary components, is evolving through the Hertzsprung gap. Our latest theoretical understanding of the CE process suggests that this will probably lead to a merger, inhibiting double black hole formation. Barring uncertainties in the physics of CE evolution, we use population synthesis calculations and find that the corresponding reduction in the merger rate of double black holes formed in galactic fields is so great (by ~500) that their contribution to inspiral detection rates for ground-based detectors could become relatively small (~1 in 10) compared to double neutron star binaries. A similar process also reduces the merger rates for double neutron stars, by a factor of ~5, eliminating most of the previously predicted ultracompact NS-NS systems. Our predicted detection rates for Advanced LIGO are now much lower for double black holes (~2 yr-1), but are still quite high for double neutron stars (~20 yr-1). If double black holes were found to be dominant in the detected inspiral signals, this could indicate that they mainly originate from dense star clusters (not included here) or that our theoretical understanding of the CE phase requires significant revision.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/606277c19136274f64819197a829287ca74b9344

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Citations in the corpus

DOUBLE COMPACT OBJECTS. I. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COMMON ENVELOPE ON MERGER RATES (2012, methodology): “Hertzsprung gap donors The outcome of the CE phase depends strongly on the evolutionary stage of the donor, as first discussed in Belczynski et al. (2007).”
Compact binaries in star clusters – I. Black hole binaries inside globular clusters (2009, background): “NS–NS binaries are expected to be the most plentiful merger species in the frequency regime of ground-based detectors (Abbott et al. 2005; Belczynski et al. 2007), however, BH–BH binaries are more massive and thus can be detected at larger distances, as far as the Virgo cluster (Abbott et al. 2006)…”
X-RAY BINARY EVOLUTION ACROSS COSMIC TIME (2012, methodology): “This is very similar effect as noted for double compact object populations, for which massive BH-BH progenitors are greatly affected by Hertzsprung gap CE while lighter NS-NS progenitors are not (Belczynski et al. 2007).”
MERGING BLACK HOLE BINARIES IN GALACTIC NUCLEI: IMPLICATIONS FOR ADVANCED-LIGO DETECTIONS (2016, background): “For example, large natal kicks will widen the orbits of massive binary progenitors and quench the formation of binary BH systems that will merge within the age of the universe (e.g., Belczynski et al. 2007).”
Predictions for the rates of compact binary coalescences observable by ground-based gravitational-wave detectors (2010, background): “The authors report results for three specific models, A, B, and C, in Table 2 of [35], which we list as realistic rates here, since quantitative estimates of uncertainties in the rate predictions are not available.”
THE EFFECT OF METALLICITY ON THE DETECTION PROSPECTS FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVES (2010, background): “In particular, it has been estimated that for a solar metallicity environment (e.g., our Galaxy), properly accounting for the HG gap may lead to a reduction in the merger rates of BH-BH binaries by ∼ 2− 3 orders of magnitude (Belczynski et al. 2007).”
DOUBLE COMPACT OBJECTS. III. GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE DETECTION RATES (2015, unknown): “The impact of the CE outcome on binary populations depends strongly on the evolutionary stage of the donor, as first discussed in Belczynski et al. (2007).”
The Interaction of Stellar Objects within a Common Envelope (2007, background): “Such studies ar not only important for determining the masses of binary neutron star and black hole systems resulting from the commonenvelope phase (Belczynski et al. 2007), but also their orbital periods, which directly influence the expected merger rates of such binary populations as sources for…”
The progenitors of compact-object binaries: impact of metallicity, common envelope and natal kicks (2018, background): “…Podsiadlowski et al. 2004, 2005; Dewi et al. 2005; Tauris & van den Heuvel 2006; Portegies Zwart & Yungelson 1998; Portegies Zwart & McMillan 2000; Belczynski et al. 2007; Bogomazov et al. 2007; Dominik et al. 2012, 2013, 2015; Mennekens & Vanbeveren 2014; Tauris et al. 2015, 2017; de Mink &…”
Dynamics of stellar black holes in young star clusters with different metallicities – II. Black hole–black hole binaries (2014, methodology): “…Sigurdsson & Chernoff 2013), or in the field, using population synthesis simulations of isolated binaries (e.g. Belczynski, Kalogera & Bulik 2002; Voss & Tauris 2003; Pfahl, Podsiadlowski & Rappaport 2005; Dewi, Podsiadlowski & Sena 2006; Belczynski et al. 2007, 2010a; Dominik et al. 2012).”
Stellar-mass black holes in star clusters: implications for gravitational-wave radiation (2009, background): “The LIGO/AdLIGO-detection rate of BH–BH mergers from a particular model cluster can be estimated from (Belczynski et al. 2007, and references therein) RLIGO = 4 3 πD3ρclRmrg, (5) where Rmrg is the compact binary merger rate from a cluster and D is the maximum distance from which the emitted GW from…”
COMPACT BINARY MERGER RATES: COMPARISON WITH LIGO/VIRGO UPPER LIMITS (2015, background): “However, it is not at all clear whether massive Hertzsprung gap (HG) donors (case B) have clear core-envelope structure (Belczynski et al. 2007) and whether they behave like MS stars (always resulting in a CE merger) or evolved giant stars (with potential CE survival).”
Double neutron stars: merger rates revisited (2017, background): “…formation channels for merging DNS: isolated (field populations, e.g. Portegies Zwart & Yungelson 1998; Belczynski et al. 2002a; Voss & Tauris 2003; Belczynski et al. 2007; Bogomazov et al. 2007; Dominik et al. 2012, 2013, 2015; Mennekens & Vanbeveren 2014; Tauris et al. 2015; Belczynski et al.…”
Compact Object Modeling with the StarTrack Population Synthesis Code (2005, background): “Now, guided by the better understanding of CE phase survival ( Ivanova et al. 2003), we do not allow survival in such cases, and in our reference model both double NS merger rates and double NS properties have changed (Belczynski et al. 2007).”
The effect of pair-instability mass loss on black-hole mergers (2016, result): “Subsequently it was shown that BH-BH merger formation in the Galactic environment, with its high metallicity, leads to suppression of BH-BH merger formation (Belczynski et al. 2007; Mennekens & Vanbeveren 2014), a finding that was not encountered in previous studies.”
The origin of spin in binary black holes (2019, background): “Thus any CE event from donors in this evolutionary phase results in a merger which reduces the BBH merger rate (Belczynski et al. 2007).”
Binary Black Hole Population Properties Inferred from the First and Second Observing Runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo (2018, background): “…form from isolated massive binaries in the galactic field through common-envelope evolution(Bethe & Brown 1998; Portegies Zwart & Yungelson 1998; Belczynski et al. 2002, 2007, 2008, 2014; Voss & Tauris 2003; Dewi et al. 2006; Dominik et al. 2013; Mennekens & Vanbeveren 2014; Spera et al. 2015;…”
Compact binary coalescences in the band of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors (2009, background): “Many potential BH–BH progenitors may enter the common-envelope phase while the donor star is evolving through the Hertzsprung gap; according to [14], such systems may merge directly, thus significantly reducing the rate of BH–BH mergers.”