# Population properties of compact objects from the second LIGO-Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalog

 dc.contributor.author Roy, Soumen dc.contributor.author Sengupta, Anand S. et al. dc.coverage.spatial United Kingdom dc.date.accessioned 2012-09-26T07:22:33Z dc.date.available 2012-09-26T07:22:33Z dc.date.issued 2021-05 dc.identifier.citation Roy, Soumen and Sengupta, Anand S. et al., "Population properties of compact objects from the second LIGO�Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalog", The Astrophysical Journal Letters, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/abe949, vol. 913, no. 1, May 2021. en_US dc.identifier.issn 2041-8205 dc.identifier.issn 2041-8213 dc.identifier.uri https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/abe949 dc.identifier.uri https://repository.iitgn.ac.in/handle/123456789/6700 dc.description.abstract We report on the population of 47 compact binary mergers detected with a false-alarm rate of <$1\,{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$ in the second LIGO–Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog. We observe several characteristics of the merging binary black hole (BBH) population not discernible until now. First, the primary mass spectrum contains structure beyond a power law with a sharp high-mass cutoff; it is more consistent with a broken power law with a break at ${39.7}_{-9.1}^{+20.3}\,\,{M}_{\odot }$ or a power law with a Gaussian feature peaking at ${33.1}_{-5.6}^{+4.0}\,\,{M}_{\odot }$ (90% credible interval). While the primary mass distribution must extend to $\sim 65\,{M}_{\odot }$ or beyond, only ${2.9}_{-1.7}^{+3.5} \%$ of systems have primary masses greater than $45\,{M}_{\odot }$. Second, we find that a fraction of BBH systems have component spins misaligned with the orbital angular momentum, giving rise to precession of the orbital plane. Moreover, $12$%–$44$% of BBH systems have spins tilted by more than 90°, giving rise to a negative effective inspiral spin parameter, ${\chi }_{\mathrm{eff}}$. Under the assumption that such systems can only be formed by dynamical interactions, we infer that between 25% and 93% of BBHs with nonvanishing $| {\chi }_{\mathrm{eff}}| \gt 0.01$ are dynamically assembled. Third, we estimate merger rates, finding ${{ \mathcal R }}_{\mathrm{BBH}}={23.9}_{-8.6}^{+14.3}\,\,{\mathrm{Gpc}}^{-3}\,{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$ for BBHs and ${{ \mathcal R }}_{\mathrm{BNS}}={320}_{-240}^{+490}\,\,{\mathrm{Gpc}}^{-3}\,{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$ for binary neutron stars. We find that the BBH rate likely increases with redshift ($85 \%$ credibility) but not faster than the star formation rate ($86 \%$ credibility). Additionally, we examine recent exceptional events in the context of our population models, finding that the asymmetric masses of GW190412 and the high component masses of GW190521 are consistent with our models, but the low secondary mass of GW190814 makes it an outlier. dc.description.statementofresponsibility by Soumen Roy and Anand S. Sengupta et al. dc.format.extent vol. 913, no. 1 dc.language.iso en_US en_US dc.publisher IOP Publishing en_US dc.title Population properties of compact objects from the second LIGO-Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalog en_US dc.type Article en_US dc.relation.journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters
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