Testing Black-Hole Formation with LIGO: Evidence for a Bimodal Black-Hole Mass Distribution
中国科学院云南天文台学术报告通知
2025年第47期
报告题目：Testing Black-Hole Formation with LIGO: Evidence for a Bimodal Black-Hole Mass Distribution
报告人：Prof. Philipp Podsiadlowski
报告人单位：London Centre for Stellar Astrophysics and University of Oxford
报告语言：English
报告时间：2025年9月11日（星期四）10:00-12:00
报告摘要：
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There has been dramatic progress in recent years in our understanding of core-collapse supernovae. This, for the first time, has allowed us to connect supernova progenitors with their supernova explosions (if successful) and their remnants. Among other things, this makes unique predictions about the black-hole mass spectrum which can be tested through detections of gravitational waves by LIGO caused by the merger of two black holes. Specifically, it predicts a peak in the mass distribution around 9 solar masses. I will explain the origin of this peak (it is related earlier nuclear burning phases, specifically carbon burning and the onset of neon burning) and show that it is only weakly dependent on metallicity. This leads to a peak in the predicted LIGO chirp-mass distribution around 8 solar masses and a gap/deficiency of systems just beyond. Using the binary population synthesis code COMPAS, we have made predictions for the rates LIGO should observe. The LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA just a few weeks ago released the results from the O4a LIGO run, bringing the number of detected black-hole mergers to 158. The observed chirp-mass distribution now shows a peak-gap structure that is in striking agreement with our predictions and rules out other commonly used black-hole formation prescriptions. This confirms our basic understanding of late stellar evolution and key aspects of the core-collapse mechanism. It also shows that, as predicted, black holes are much harder to form in binaries than has often been assumed in the literature. This explains, e.g., the lack of Be X-ray binaries containing black holes. I will discuss this and other implications for modeling black-hole binary systems.
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报告人简介：
Prof. Philipp Podsiadlowski is a Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. He received his Ph.D at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1989. He is a broad-profile specialist working in stellar evolution theory and its applications to binary stellar evolution, supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, galaxy evolution, planet formation, and aLIGO gravitational-wave sources. He has published more than 170 papers in refereed journals (including 23 in Nature and Science). Prof. Podsiadlowski was awarded the Humboldt Research Prize by the German Humboldt Foundation in recognition of his “Life’s Research and Contribution to Teaching”. He has been a regular guest professor at universities around the world (most recently in Heidelberg and Melbourne).
云台邀请方：大样本恒星演化研究团组
邀请方联系人：孟祥存
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