Find the Gap: Black Hole Population Analysis with an Astrophysically Motivated Mass Function. (arXiv:2104.02685v1 [astro-ph.CO])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Baxter_E/0/1/0/all/0/1">Eric J. Baxter</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Croon_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">Djuna Croon</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+McDermott_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">Samuel D. McDermott</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Sakstein_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">Jeremy Sakstein</a>
We introduce a novel black hole mass function which realistically models the
physics of star formation and pair instability supernova with a minimal number
of parameters. Applying this to all events in the LIGO-Virgo GWTC-2 catalog, we
detect a peak at M_BHMG = 74.8^{+4.3}_{-8.0} MS, followed by a break in the
mass function. Repeating the analysis without the black holes from the event
GW190521, we find this feature at M_BHMG = 55.4^{+3.0}_{-6.1} MS. The latter
result establishes the edge of the anticipated “black hole mass gap” at a value
compatible with the expectation from standard stellar structure theory, while
the former result is ~ 20MS higher, which would have far-reaching implications
if confirmed. Using Bayesian techniques, we establish that our mass function
fits a new catalog of black hole masses approximately as well as the
pre-existing phenomenological mass functions. We also remark on the
implications of these results for constraining or discovering new phenomena in
nuclear and particle physics.
We introduce a novel black hole mass function which realistically models the
physics of star formation and pair instability supernova with a minimal number
of parameters. Applying this to all events in the LIGO-Virgo GWTC-2 catalog, we
detect a peak at M_BHMG = 74.8^{+4.3}_{-8.0} MS, followed by a break in the
mass function. Repeating the analysis without the black holes from the event
GW190521, we find this feature at M_BHMG = 55.4^{+3.0}_{-6.1} MS. The latter
result establishes the edge of the anticipated “black hole mass gap” at a value
compatible with the expectation from standard stellar structure theory, while
the former result is ~ 20MS higher, which would have far-reaching implications
if confirmed. Using Bayesian techniques, we establish that our mass function
fits a new catalog of black hole masses approximately as well as the
pre-existing phenomenological mass functions. We also remark on the
implications of these results for constraining or discovering new phenomena in
nuclear and particle physics.
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