The Missing Link Between Black Holes in High-Mass X-ray Binaries and Gravitational-Wave Sources: Observational Selection Effects

TL;DR

This paper explores how observational biases affect the apparent differences between high-mass X-ray binaries with black holes and merging binary black holes, explaining why few observed HMXBs lead to detectable gravitational wave mergers.

Contribution

It demonstrates the impact of selection effects on the observed properties of HMXBs and BBHs, revealing disparities in their formation environments and mass distributions.

Findings

Detectable HMXBs form at lower redshifts and higher metallicities than BBHs.

Fewer than 3% of detectable HMXBs host black holes over 35 solar masses.

The probability of an HMXB merging as a BBH within a Hubble time is about 0.6%.

Abstract

There are few observed high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) that harbor massive black holes, and none are likely to result in a binary black hole (BBH) that merges within a Hubble time; however, we know that massive merging BBHs exist from gravitational-wave observations. We investigate the role that X-ray and gravitational-wave observational selection effects play in determining the properties of their respective detected binary populations. We find that, as a result of selection effects, detectable HMXBs and detectable BBHs form at different redshifts and metallicities, with detectable HMXBs forming at much lower redshifts and higher metallicities than detectable BBHs. We also find disparities in the mass distributions of these populations, with detectable merging BBH progenitors pulling to higher component masses relative to the full detectable HMXB population. Fewer than $3\%$ of detectable HMXBs host black holes $> 35M_{\odot}$ in our simulated populations. Furthermore, we find the probability that a detectable HMXB will merge as a BBH system within a Hubble time is $\simeq 0.6\%$. Thus, it is unsurprising that no currently observed HMXB is predicted to form a merging BBH with high probability.