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When and where did GW150914 form?

Lamberts, A. and Garrison-Kimmel, S. and Clausen, D. R. and Hopkins, P. F. (2016) When and where did GW150914 form? Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 463 (1). L31-L35. ISSN 1745-3925. doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slw152. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20161031-112035738

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Abstract

The recent LIGO detection of gravitational waves (GW150914), likely originating from the merger of two ∼ 30M_⊙ black holes suggests progenitor stars of low metallicity ([Z/Z_⊙] ≲ 0.3), constraining when and where the progenitor of GW150914 may have formed. We combine estimates of galaxy properties (star-forming gas metallicity, star formation rate and merger rate) across cosmic time to predict the low redshift black hole – black hole merger rate as a function of present day host galaxy mass, M_(gal), the formation redshift of the progenitor system z_f and different progenitor metallicities Z_p. For Z_p ⩾ 0.1Z_⊙, the signal is dominated by binaries in massive galaxies with z_f ≃ 2 while below Z_p ⩽ 0.1Z_⊙ most mergers come from binaries formed around z_f ≃ 0.5 in dwarf galaxies. Additional gravitational wave detections from merging massive black holes will provide constraints on the mass–metallicity relation and massive star formation at high redshifts.


Item Type:Article
Related URLs:
URLURL TypeDescription
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slw152DOIArticle
http://mnrasl.oxfordjournals.org/content/463/1/L31.abstractPublisherArticle
https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.08783arXivDiscussion Paper
ORCID:
AuthorORCID
Lamberts, A.0000-0001-8740-0127
Garrison-Kimmel, S.0000-0002-4655-8128
Hopkins, P. F.0000-0003-3729-1684
Additional Information:© 2016 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. Accepted 2016 July 27. Received 2016 July 13; in original form 2016 May 27. First published online July 30, 2016. Support for AL and PFH was provided by an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, NASA ATP Grant NNX14AH35G, and NSF Collaborative Research Grant No. 1411920 and CAREER Grant No. 1455342. Support for SGK was provided by NASA through Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant No. PF5-160136 awarded by the Chandra X-ray Center, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for NASA under contract NAS8-03060. DC was supported through the Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Sherman Fairchild Foundation and the Caltech Department of Astronomy. The authors thank Chris Pankow, Evan Kirby, Xiangcheng Ma, Fangzhou Jiang, and Peter Behroozi for very helpful and stimulating discussions. We thank the referee for a constructive report that improved and clarified the Letter.
Group:TAPIR, Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics
Funders:
Funding AgencyGrant Number
Alfred P. Sloan FoundationUNSPECIFIED
NASANNX14AH35G
NSFAST-1411920
NSFAST-1455342
NASA Einstein Postdoctoral FellowshipPF5-160136
NASANAS8-03060
Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics, CaltechUNSPECIFIED
Sherman Fairchild FoundationUNSPECIFIED
CaltechUNSPECIFIED
Subject Keywords:gravitational waves; binaries: close; stars: black holes; stars: evolution; galaxies: abundances; galaxies: stellar content
Issue or Number:1
DOI:10.1093/mnrasl/slw152
Record Number:CaltechAUTHORS:20161031-112035738
Persistent URL:https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20161031-112035738
Official Citation:A. Lamberts, S. Garrison-Kimmel, D. R. Clausen, and P. F. Hopkins When and where did GW150914 form? MNRAS (November 21, 2016) Vol. 463 L31-L35 doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slw152 first published online July 30, 2016
Usage Policy:No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
ID Code:71622
Collection:CaltechAUTHORS
Deposited By: George Porter
Deposited On:31 Oct 2016 19:36
Last Modified:11 Nov 2021 04:48

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