Two of a Kind: Comparing big and small black holes in binaries with gravitational waves

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the secondary mass distribution of merging binary black holes using gravitational wave data, revealing a potential peak at around 31 solar masses that challenges existing formation models.

Contribution

It presents the first explicit fit for the secondary black hole mass distribution, highlighting differences from primary distributions and implications for binary formation theories.

Findings

Secondary mass distribution may have a peak at ~31 M_sun.

Data suggests the peak could be unique to secondary masses.

The peak's position challenges previous supernova models.

Abstract

When modeling the population of merging binary black holes, analyses have generally focused on characterizing the distribution of primary (i.e. more massive) black holes in the binary, while simplistic prescriptions are used for the distribution of secondary masses. However, the secondary mass distribution and its relationship to the primary mass distribution provide a fundamental observational constraint on the formation history of coalescing binary black holes. If both black holes experience similar stellar evolutionary processes prior to collapse, as might be expected in dynamical formation channels, the primary and secondary mass distributions would show similar features. If they follow distinct evolutionary pathways (for example, due to binary interactions that break symmetry between the initially more massive and less massive star), their mass distributions may differ. We present the first analysis of the binary black hole population that explicitly fits for the secondary mass distribution. We find that the data is consistent with a $\sim30\,M_{\odot}$ peak existing only in the distribution of \emph{secondary} rather than primary masses. This would have major implications for our understanding of the formation of these binaries. Alternatively, the data is consistent with the peak existing in both component mass distributions, a possibility not included in most other previous studies. In either case, the peak is observed at $31.4_{-2.6}^{+2.3}\,M_{\odot}$, which is shifted lower than the value obtained in previous analyses of the marginal primary mass distribution, placing this feature in further tension with expectations from a pulsational pair-instability supernova pileup.