Beyond the far side: Observing black hole mergers beyond the pair-instability mass gap with next-generation gravitational wave detectors

Abstract

Stellar evolution predicts the existence of a mass gap for black hole remnants produced by pair-instability supernova dynamics, whose lower and upper edges are very uncertain. We study the possibility of constraining the location of the upper end of the pair-instability mass gap, which is believed to appear around ${m_\text{min}} \sim130M_\odot$, using gravitational wave observations of compact binary mergers with next-generation ground-based detectors. While high metallicity may not allow for the formation of first-generation black holes on the "far side" beyond the gap, metal-poor environments containing Population III stars could lead to such heavy black hole mergers. We show that, even in the presence of contamination from other merger channels, next-generation detectors will measure the location of the upper end of the mass gap with a relative precision close to $\Delta {m_\text{min}}/{m_\text{min}} \simeq 4\% (N_\text{det}/100 )^{-1/2}$ at 90% C.L., where $N_\text{det} $ is the number of detected mergers with both members beyond the gap. These future observations could reduce current uncertainties in nuclear and astrophysical processes controlling the location of the gap.