Mass Function of Stellar Black Holes as Revealed by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Observations
Ninety gravitational-wave events have been detected by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA network and are released in the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog. Among these events, 83 cases are definitely binary black hole mergers, since the masses of all the objects involved significantly exceed the upper limit o...
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IOP Publishing
2024-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad8b43 |
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| author | Xiao-Fei Dong Yong-Feng Huang Zhi-Bin Zhang Xiu-Juan Li Ze-Cheng Zou Chen-Ran Hu Chen Deng Yang Liu |
| author_facet | Xiao-Fei Dong Yong-Feng Huang Zhi-Bin Zhang Xiu-Juan Li Ze-Cheng Zou Chen-Ran Hu Chen Deng Yang Liu |
| author_sort | Xiao-Fei Dong |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Ninety gravitational-wave events have been detected by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA network and are released in the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog. Among these events, 83 cases are definitely binary black hole mergers, since the masses of all the objects involved significantly exceed the upper limit of neutron stars. The black holes in these merger events naturally form two interesting samples, a premerger sample that includes all the black holes before the mergers and a postmerger sample that consists of the black holes generated during the merging processes. The former represents black holes that once existed in the Universe, while the latter represents newly born black holes. Here we present a statistical analysis of these two samples. The nonparametric τ statistic method is adopted to correct for the observational selection effect. The Lynden-Bell C ^− method is further applied to derive the mass distribution and density function of black holes. It is found that the mass distribution can be expressed as a broken power-law function. More interestingly, the power-law index in the high-mass region is comparable for the two samples. The number density of black holes is found to depend on redshift as ρ ( z ) ∝ z ^−2.06 — z ^−2.12 based on the two samples. The implications of these findings on the origin of black holes are discussed. |
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| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
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| series | The Astrophysical Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-ca8bf4cf623642c3b1c0da1a74761f6e2024-11-29T09:57:34ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572024-01-0197712910.3847/1538-4357/ad8b43Mass Function of Stellar Black Holes as Revealed by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA ObservationsXiao-Fei Dong0https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0467-0050Yong-Feng Huang1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7199-2906Zhi-Bin Zhang2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4859-682XXiu-Juan Li3Ze-Cheng Zou4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6189-8307Chen-Ran Hu5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5238-8997Chen Deng6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2191-7286Yang Liu7School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University , Nanjing 210023, People's Republic of China ; hyf@nju.edu.cnSchool of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University , Nanjing 210023, People's Republic of China ; hyf@nju.edu.cn; Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics (Nanjing University) , Ministry of Education, Nanjing 210023, People's Republic of ChinaSchool of Physics and Engineering, Qufu Normal University , Qufu 273165, People's Republic of ChinaSchool of Cyber Science and Engineering, Qufu Normal University , Qufu 273165, People's Republic of ChinaSchool of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University , Nanjing 210023, People's Republic of China ; hyf@nju.edu.cnSchool of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University , Nanjing 210023, People's Republic of China ; hyf@nju.edu.cnSchool of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University , Nanjing 210023, People's Republic of China ; hyf@nju.edu.cnSchool of Physics and Engineering, Qufu Normal University , Qufu 273165, People's Republic of ChinaNinety gravitational-wave events have been detected by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA network and are released in the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog. Among these events, 83 cases are definitely binary black hole mergers, since the masses of all the objects involved significantly exceed the upper limit of neutron stars. The black holes in these merger events naturally form two interesting samples, a premerger sample that includes all the black holes before the mergers and a postmerger sample that consists of the black holes generated during the merging processes. The former represents black holes that once existed in the Universe, while the latter represents newly born black holes. Here we present a statistical analysis of these two samples. The nonparametric τ statistic method is adopted to correct for the observational selection effect. The Lynden-Bell C ^− method is further applied to derive the mass distribution and density function of black holes. It is found that the mass distribution can be expressed as a broken power-law function. More interestingly, the power-law index in the high-mass region is comparable for the two samples. The number density of black holes is found to depend on redshift as ρ ( z ) ∝ z ^−2.06 — z ^−2.12 based on the two samples. The implications of these findings on the origin of black holes are discussed.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad8b43Black holesAstronomy data analysisStellar mergersGravitational waves |
| spellingShingle | Xiao-Fei Dong Yong-Feng Huang Zhi-Bin Zhang Xiu-Juan Li Ze-Cheng Zou Chen-Ran Hu Chen Deng Yang Liu Mass Function of Stellar Black Holes as Revealed by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Observations The Astrophysical Journal Black holes Astronomy data analysis Stellar mergers Gravitational waves |
| title | Mass Function of Stellar Black Holes as Revealed by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Observations |
| title_full | Mass Function of Stellar Black Holes as Revealed by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Observations |
| title_fullStr | Mass Function of Stellar Black Holes as Revealed by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Observations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mass Function of Stellar Black Holes as Revealed by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Observations |
| title_short | Mass Function of Stellar Black Holes as Revealed by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Observations |
| title_sort | mass function of stellar black holes as revealed by the ligo virgo kagra observations |
| topic | Black holes Astronomy data analysis Stellar mergers Gravitational waves |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad8b43 |
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