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Cited by 906

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 47 of the 47 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The first gravitational-wave source from the isolated evolution of two stars in the 40–100 solar mass range

Open access
Belczynski, Krzysztof, Holz, Daniel E., Bulik, Tomasz, O’Shaughnessy, Richard·2016·Nature
DOI 10.1038/nature18322
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Abstract

The merger of two massive (about 30 solar masses) black holes has been detected in gravitational waves. This discovery validates recent predictions that massive binary black holes would constitute the first detection. Previous calculations, however, have not sampled the relevant binary-black-hole progenitors—massive, low-metallicity binary stars—with sufficient accuracy nor included sufficiently realistic physics to enable robust predictions to better than several orders of magnitude. Here we report high-precision numerical simulations of the formation of binary black holes via the evolution of isolated binary stars, providing a framework within which to interpret the first gravitational-wave source, GW150914, and to predict the properties of subsequent binary-black-hole gravitational-wave events. Our models imply that these events form in an environment in which the metallicity is less than ten per cent of solar metallicity, and involve stars with initial masses of 40–100 solar masses that interact through mass transfer and a common-envelope phase. These progenitor stars probably formed either about 2 billion years or, with a smaller probability, 11 billion years after the Big Bang. Most binary black holes form without supernova explosions, and their spins are nearly unchanged since birth, but do not have to be parallel. The classical field formation of binary black holes we propose, with low natal kicks (the velocity of the black hole at birth) and restricted common-envelope evolution, produces approximately 40 times more binary-black-holes mergers than do dynamical formation channels involving globular clusters; our predicted detection rate of these mergers is comparable to that from homogeneous evolution channels. Our calculations predict detections of about 1,000 black-hole mergers per year with total masses of 20–80 solar masses once second-generation ground-based gravitational-wave observatories reach full sensitivity.

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Metadata

Authors
Belczynski, K., Holz, D. E., Bulik, T., & O’Shaughnessy, R.
Venue
Nature
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2016-06-22
Volume
534
Issue
7608
Pages
512-515
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
DOI
10.1038/nature18322
OpenAlex
W2462805925
Cited by
906
References
47
FWCI
69.50
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The first gravitational-wave source from the isolated evolution of two stars in the 40–100 solar mass range. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1038/nature18322
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Belczynski, K., Holz, D. E., Bulik, T., & O’Shaughnessy, R. (2016). The first gravitational-wave source from the isolated evolution of two stars in the 40–100 solar mass range. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18322

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

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