Speaker
Description
We have just passed the 10th anniversary of the first-ever gravitational-wave detection. With more than 150 detections of merging binary black holes (and counting), gravitational-wave observations have entered the ‘population era’. The data already reveal a rich structure in the black hole mass function. However, for the first time, we have now obtained enough detections to begin identifying sub-populations within the larger binary black hole population.
These sub-populations might help us identify families of binary black hole mergers that share a common origin (i.e., have the same formation channel). In particular, certain binary interactions (like stable mass transfer) are expected to leave measurable imprints on the properties of merging binary black holes. I will discuss what different binary interactions predict, what we currently observe in the gravitational-wave population, and how these observations already allow us to place meaningful constraints on, and in some cases exclude, specific formation channels.
| Talk category | Plenary |
|---|
