Particle Physics Seminar: Outliers in the observed black hole mass function - studied with the coagulation equation

Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/95159621232?pwd=NjNiZVBTY1VjK3hoc2tMTkRsS1pqQT09

Abstract:

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is currently the main detector to probe gravitational waves that were generated in the events of black holes coalescence. The third LIGO's run (O3) has ended just recently and has detected 55 events in total. Some of these events are particularly intriguing as the masses of the involved black holes are either too low or too high to be explained by the classical models of stellar black hole formation. A possible explanation for these outliers is that they belong to second or third generation black holes that were born through hierarchical mergers of black holes and neutron stars in dense environments such as globular clusters. In this talk I'll present how we studied this idea analytically by using the famous coagulation equation (Smoluchowski, 1916). Our work demonstrates that this explanation is feasible and that it has falsifiable predictions for the next LIGO runs.

Seminar Organizers: Prof. Erez Etzion & Dr. Liron Barak