Mind the gap: The location of the lower edge of the pair instability supernovae black hole mass gap
R. Farmer, M. Renzo, S. E de Mink, P. Marchant, S. Justham

TL;DR
This study uses stellar evolution models to precisely determine the lower edge of the black hole mass gap caused by pair-instability supernovae, finding it to be around 45 solar masses and robust against many variables.
Contribution
The paper provides the most robust prediction of the lower edge of the black hole mass gap, accounting for various stellar parameters and nuclear reaction rate uncertainties.
Findings
Lower edge of the mass gap at ~45 M_sun is highly robust.
Variations in metallicity and stellar winds have minimal impact on the gap location.
Uncertainty in nuclear reaction rates can shift the gap between 40 and 56 M_sun.
Abstract
Gravitational-wave detections are now starting to probe the mass distribution of stellar-mass black holes (BHs). Robust predictions from stellar models are needed to interpret these. Theory predicts the existence of a gap in the BH mass distribution because of pair-instability supernova. The maximum BH mass below the gap is the result of pulsational mass loss. We evolve massive helium stars through their late hydrodynamical phases of evolution using the open-source MESA stellar evolution code. We find that the location of the lower edge of the mass gap at 45 is remarkably robust against variations in the metallicity (), the treatment of internal mixing (), stellar wind mass loss (), making it the most robust predictions for the final stages of massive star evolution. The reason is that the onset of the instability is…
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