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arXiv · 2207.14290

Do high-spin high-mass X-ray binaries contribute to the population of merging binary black holes?

Monica Gallegos-Garcia·Maya Fishbach·Vicky Kalogera·Christopher P L Berry·Zoheyr Doctor
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Abstract

Gravitational-wave observations of binary black hole (BBH) systems point to black hole spin magnitudes being relatively low. These measurements appear in tension with high spin measurements for high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs). We use grids of MESA simulations combined with the rapid population-synthesis code COSMIC to examine the origin of these two binary populations. It has been suggested that Case-A mass transfer while both stars are on the main sequence can form high-spin BHs in HMXBs. Assuming this formation channel, we show that depending on critical mass ratios for the stability of mass transfer, 48-100% of these Case-A HMXBs merge during the common-envelope phase and up to 42% result in binaries too wide to merge within a Hubble time. Both MESA and COSMIC show that high-spin HMXBs formed through Case-A mass transfer can only form merging BBHs within a small parameter space where mass transfer can lead to enough orbital shrinkage to merge within a Hubble time. We find that only up to 11% of these Case-A HMXBs result in BBH mergers, and at most 20% of BBH mergers came from Case-A HMXBs. Therefore, it is not surprising that these two spin distributions are observed to be different.

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Monica Gallegos-Garcia, Maya Fishbach, Vicky Kalogera, Christopher P L Berry, Zoheyr Doctor. 2022-07-28. Do high-spin high-mass X-ray binaries contribute to the population of merging binary black holes?. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213%2Fac96ef

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