Can "premature collapse" form black holes in the upper and lower mass gaps?

Abstract

Observations of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers, including the recent signals GW231123 and GW230529, have revealed multiple progenitor black holes in the so-called upper and lower mass gaps, respectively. It is generally assumed that massive stars cannot form black holes in the upper mass gap because pair instabilities in the late stage of stellar evolution disrupt the stars, whereas the lower mass gap refers to the gap between the maximum allowed neutron star mass and the smallest black hole mass expected to form in supernova explosions. Here we explore a "premature collapse" scenario in which upper mass gap stars collapse and form black holes before they reach the late stage of stellar evolution. The mechanism for triggering a premature collapse is the capture of a smaller black hole, possibly primordial in nature. A similar capture scenario can occur to produce black holes in the lower mass gap. At least for massive stars, typical stellar rotation rates would likely result in rapidly rotating black holes in such a scenario, naturally explaining the rapid spins inferred from GW231123. Even though our estimates hinge on several parameters with rather large uncertainties, they suggest that, at least in galactic disks, the likelihood of such a capture is small for stars in the upper mass gap, but may lead to a significant population of black holes in the lower mass gap and, in fact, even below the lower mass gap.