Constraints from gravitational wave detections of binary black hole mergers on the $^{12}\rm{C}\left(\alpha,\gamma\right)^{16}\!\rm{O}$ rate

TL;DR

Gravitational wave observations of black hole mergers can constrain the uncertain $^{12}\rm{C}(\alpha,\gamma)^{16}\rm{O}$ nuclear reaction rate, linking stellar evolution, supernovae, and gravitational wave astrophysics.

Contribution

This study uses gravitational wave data to place new constraints on the $^{12}\rm{C}(\alpha,\gamma)^{16}\rm{O}$ reaction rate, connecting nuclear physics with black hole mass distributions.

Findings

Black hole mass gap location depends on the $^{12}\rm{C}(\alpha,\gamma)^{16}\rm{O}$ rate.

Current gravitational wave detections constrain the S-factor to be greater than 175 keV barns.

Future detections could refine the S-factor to within 10-30 keV barns.

Abstract

Gravitational wave detections are starting to allow us to probe the physical processes in the evolution of very massive stars through the imprints they leave on their final remnants. Stellar evolution theory predicts the existence of a gap in the black hole mass distribution at high mass due to the effects of pair-instability. Previously, we showed that the location of the gap is robust against model uncertainties, but it does depend sensitively on the uncertain $^{12}\rm{C}\left(\alpha,\gamma\right)^{16}\!\rm{O}$ rate. This rate is of great astrophysical significance and governs the production of oxygen at the expense of carbon. We use the open source MESA stellar evolution code to evolve massive helium stars to probe the location of the mass gap. We find that the maximum black hole mass below the gap varies between $40\rm{M}_\odot$ to $90\rm{M}_\odot$, depending on the strength of the uncertain $^{12}\rm{C}\left(\alpha,\gamma\right)^{16}\!\rm{O}$ reaction rate. With the first ten gravitational-wave detections of black holes, we constrain the astrophysical S-factor for $^{12}\rm{C}\left(\alpha,\gamma\right)^{16}\!\rm{O}$, at $300\rm{keV}$, to $S_{300}>175\rm{\,keV\, barns}$ at 68% confidence. With $\mathcal{O}(50)$ detected binary black hole mergers, we expect to constrain the S-factor to within $\pm10$-$30\rm{\,keV\, barns}$. We also highlight a role for independent constraints from electromagnetic transient surveys. The unambiguous detection of pulsational pair instability supernovae would imply that $S_{300}>79\rm{\,keV\, barns}$. Degeneracies with other model uncertainties need to be investigated further, but probing nuclear stellar astrophysics poses a promising science case for the future gravitational wave detectors.