Formation rate of LB-1-like systems through dynamical interactions

TL;DR

This paper estimates the formation rates of LB-1-like systems via stellar dynamical interactions, concluding that such systems are unlikely to form through these mechanisms, thus challenging previous hypotheses about their origins.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed formation scenario for LB-1-like systems through stellar collisions and dynamical interactions, and quantifies their expected occurrence rate in the Milky Way.

Findings

Formation rate of LB-1-like systems is very low, about 0.01 per open cluster.

The proposed mechanism is at least 10 times more efficient than other known mechanisms.

The study concludes that dynamical interactions cannot explain the LB-1 system.

Abstract

We estimate formation rates of LB-1-like systems through dynamical interactions in the framework of the theory of stellar evolution before the discovery of the LB-1 system. The LB-1 system contains $\sim 70M_\odot$ black hole (BH), so-called pair instability (PI)-gap BH, and B-type star with solar metallicity, and has nearly zero eccentricity. The most efficient formation mechanism is as follows. In an open cluster, a naked helium (He) star (with $\sim 20M_\odot$) collides with a heavy main-sequence (MS) star (with $\sim 50M_\odot$) which has a B-type companion. The collision results in a binary consisting of the collision product and B-type star with a high eccentricity. The binary can be circularized through the dynamical tide with radiative damping of the collision-product envelope. Finally, the collision product collapses to a PI-gap BH, avoiding pulsational pair instability and pair instability supernovae because its He core is as massive as the pre-colliding naked He star. We find that the number of LB-1-like systems in the Milky Way galaxy is $\sim 0.01 (\rho_{\rm oc} / 10^4 M_\odot \mbox{pc}^{-3})$, where $\rho_{\rm oc}$ is the initial mass densities of open clusters. If we take into account LB-1-like systems with O-type companion stars, the number increases to $\sim 0.03 (\rho_{\rm oc} / 10^4 M_\odot \mbox{pc}^{-3})$. This mechanism can form LB-1-like systems at least 10 times more efficiently than the other mechanisms: captures of B-type stars by PI-gap BHs, stellar collisions between other type stars, and stellar mergers in hierarchical triple systems. We conclude that no dynamical mechanism can explain the presence of the LB-1 system.