Growth of stellar mass black holes in dense molecular clouds and GW190521
Jared R. Rice, Bing Zhang
TL;DR
This paper explores how stellar mass black holes can significantly grow within dense molecular clouds through Bondi accretion, potentially explaining massive black hole mergers like GW190521 observed by LIGO/Virgo.
Contribution
It introduces a new formation channel for massive stellar-mass black holes via accretion in dense molecular clouds, linking it to observed gravitational wave events.
Findings
Black holes can grow substantially in dense molecular clouds.
This growth mechanism may explain GW190521's massive black hole merger.
Potential connection to the LB-1 black hole candidate.
Abstract
A stellar mass black hole can grow its mass noticeably through Bondi accretion, if it is embedded in an extremely dense and massive molecular cloud with slow motion with respect to the ambient medium for an extended period of time. This provides a novel, yet challenging channel for the formation of massive stellar-mass black holes. We discuss how this channel may account for the massive binary black hole merger system GW190521 as observed by LIGO/Virgo gravitational wave detectors as well as the claimed massive black hole candidate LB-1.
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