{"id":359745,"date":"2026-04-02T04:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T04:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/359745\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T04:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T04:50:09","slug":"evidence-of-the-pair-instability-gap-from-black-hole-masses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/359745\/","title":{"rendered":"Evidence of the pair-instability gap from black-hole masses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fowler, W. A. & Hoyle, F. Neutrino processes and pair formation in massive stars and supernovae. Astrophys. J. Suppl. 9, 201\u2013319 (1964).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Rakavy, G. & Shaviv, G. Instabilities in highly evolved stellar models. Astrophys. J. 148, 803 (1967).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Barkat, Z., Rakavy, G. & Sack, N. Dynamics of supernova explosion resulting from pair formation. Phys. Rev. Lett. 18, 379\u2013381 (1967).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Fraley, G. S. Supernovae explosions induced by pair-production instability. Astrophys. Space Sci. 2, 96\u2013114 (1968).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Heger, A. & Woosley, S. E. The nucleosynthetic signature of population III. Astrophys. J. 567, 532\u2013543 (2002).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Woosley, S. E., Blinnikov, S. & Heger, A. Pulsational pair instability as an explanation for the most luminous supernovae. Nature 450, 390\u2013392 (2007).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n PubMed<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Farmer, R., Renzo, M., de Mink, S. E., Marchant, P. & Justham, S. Mind the gap: the location of the lower edge of the pair-instability supernova black hole mass gap. Astrophys. J. 887, 53 (2019).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Abbott, B. P. et al. Binary black hole population properties inferred from the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. Astrophys. J. Lett. 882, L24 (2019).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Abbott, R. et al. Population properties of compact objects from the second LIGO\u2013Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalog. Astrophys. J. Lett. 913, L7 (2021).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Schulze, S. et al. 1100 days in the life of the supernova 2018ibb. The best pair-instability supernova candidate, to date. Astron. Astrophys. 683, A223 (2024).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Angus, C. R. et al. Double \u201cacct\u201d: a distinct double-peaked supernova matching pulsational pair instability models. Astrophys. J. Lett. 977, L41 (2024).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Aasi, J. et al. Advanced LIGO. Class. Quantum Gravity 32, 074001 (2015).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Acernese, F. et al. Advanced Virgo: a second-generation interferometric gravitational wave detector. Class. Quantum Gravity 32, 024001 (2015).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Akutsu, T. et al. Overview of KAGRA: detector design and construction history. Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys. 2021, 05A101 (2021).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Farmer, R., Renzo, M., Mink, S., Fishbach, M. & Justham, S. Constraints from gravitational-wave detections of binary black hole mergers on the 12C(\u03b1, \u03b3)16O rate. Astrophys. J. Lett. 902, L36 (2020).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Abbott, R. et al. Population of merging compact binaries inferred using gravitational waves through GWTC-3. Phys. Rev. X 13, 011048 (2023).<\/p>\n

CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Edelman, B., Doctor, Z. & Farr, B. Poking holes: looking for gaps in LIGO\/Virgo\u2019s black hole population. Astrophys. J. Lett. 913, L23 (2021).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Mould, M., Gerosa, D. & Taylor, S. R. Deep learning and Bayesian inference of gravitational-wave populations: hierarchical black-hole mergers. Phys. Rev. D 106, 103013 (2022).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n MathSciNet<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Wang, Y.-Z. et al. Potential subpopulations and assembling tendency of the merging black holes. Astrophys. J. Lett. 941, L39 (2022).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Li, Y.-J., Wang, Y.-Z., Tang, S.-P. & Fan, Y.-Z. Resolving the stellar-collapse and hierarchical-merger origins of the coalescing black holes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 051401 (2024).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n MathSciNet<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n PubMed<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Antonini, F., Romero-Shaw, I. M. & Callister, T. Star cluster population of high mass black hole mergers in gravitational wave data. Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 011401 (2025).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n MathSciNet<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n PubMed<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Talbot, C. & Thrane, E. Measuring the binary black hole mass spectrum with an astrophysically motivated parameterization. Astrophys. J. 856, 173 (2018).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Golomb, J., Isi, M. & Farr, W. M. Physical models for the astrophysical population of black holes: application to the bump in the mass distribution of gravitational-wave sources. Astrophys. J. 976, 121 (2024).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Stevenson, S. et al. The impact of pair-instability mass loss on the binary black hole mass distribution. Astrophys. J. 882, 121 (2019).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Croon, D. & Sakstein, J. Prediction of multiple features in the black hole mass function due to pulsational pair-instability supernovae. Phys. Rev. D 112, 063053 (2025).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Gerosa, D. & Fishbach, M. Hierarchical mergers of stellar-mass black holes and their gravitational-wave signatures. Nat. Astron. 5, 749\u2013760 (2021).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Di Carlo, U. N. et al. Merging black holes in young star clusters. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 487, 2947\u20132960 (2019).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Renzo, M., Cantiello, M., Metzger, B. D. & Jiang, Y.-F. The stellar merger scenario for black holes in the pair-instability gap. Astrophys. J. Lett. 904, L13 (2020).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Siegel, D. M. et al. \u201cSuper-kilonovae\u201d from massive collapsars as signatures of black hole birth in the pair-instability mass gap. Astrophys. J. 941, 100 (2022).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

McKernan, B., Ford, K. E. S., Lyra, W. & Perets, H. B. Intermediate mass black holes in AGN discs \u2013 I. Production and growth. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 425, 460\u2013469 (2012).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Abac, A. G. et al. GWTC-4.0: updating the gravitational-wave transient catalog with observations from the first part of the fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run. Preprint at https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2508.18082<\/a> (2025).<\/p>\n

Woosley, S. E. Pulsational pair-instability supernovae. Astrophys. J. 836, 244 (2017).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Abac, A. G. et al. GW231123: a binary black hole merger with total mass 190\u2013265 M\u2299. Astrophys. J. Lett. 993, L25 (2025).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Gottlieb, O. et al. Spinning into the gap: direct-horizon collapse as the origin of GW231123 from end-to-end general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Astrophys. J. Lett. 993, L5ss4 (2025).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Payne, E. & Thrane, E. Model exploration in gravitational-wave astronomy with the maximum population likelihood. Phys. Rev. Res. 5, 023013 (2023).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Fitchett, M. J. The influence of gravitational wave momentum losses on the centre of mass motion of a Newtonian binary system. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 203, 1049\u20131062 (1983).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Gerosa, D., H\u00e9bert, F. & Stein, L. C. Black-hole kicks from numerical-relativity surrogate models. Phys. Rev. D 97, 104049 (2018).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Antonini, F. & Rasio, F. A. Merging black hole binaries in galactic nuclei: implications for advanced-LIGO detections. Astrophys. J. 831, 187 (2016).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Rodriguez, C. L. et al. Black holes: the next generation\u2014repeated mergers in dense star clusters and their gravitational-wave properties. Phys. Rev. D 100, 043027 (2019).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Abac, A. G. et al. GWTC-4.0: population properties of merging compact binaries. Preprint at https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2508.18083<\/a> (2025).<\/p>\n

Pierra, G., Mastrogiovanni, S. & Perri\u00e8s, S. The spin magnitude of stellar-mass black holes evolves with the mass. Astron. Astrophys. 692, A80 (2024).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Antonini, F. et al. Gravitational waves reveal the pair-instability mass gap and constrain nuclear burning in massive stars. Preprint at https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2509.04637<\/a> (2025).<\/p>\n

McKernan, B. & Ford, K. E. S. Constraining the LVK AGN channel with black hole spins. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 531, 3479\u20133485 (2024).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Fishbach, M. & Holz, D. E. Minding the gap: GW190521 as a straddling binary. Astrophys. J. Lett. 904, L26 (2020).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

deBoer, R. J. et al. The 12C(\u03b1, \u03b3)16O reaction and its implications for stellar helium burning. Rev. Mod. Phys. 89, 035007 (2017).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n MathSciNet<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Buchmann, L. New stellar reaction rate for 12C(\u03b1, \u03b3)16O. Astrophys. J. Lett. 468, L127 (1996).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Kunz, R. et al. Astrophysical reaction rate of 12C(\u03b1, \u03b3)16O. Astrophys. J. 567, 643\u2013650 (2002).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Shen, Y. et al. New determination of the 12C(\u03b1, \u03b3)16O reaction rate and its impact on the black-hole mass gap. Astrophys. J. 945, 41 (2023).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Farr, W. M., Fishbach, M., Ye, J. & Holz, D. E. A future percent-level measurement of the Hubble expansion at redshift 0.8 with advanced LIGO. Astrophys. J. Lett. 883, L42 (2019).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Talbot, C., Farah, A., Galaudage, S., Golomb, J. & Tong, H. GWPopulation: hardware agnostic population inference for compact binaries and beyond. J. Open Source Softw. 10, 7753 (2025).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Fishbach, M., Holz, D. E. & Farr, W. M. Does the black hole merger rate evolve with redshift? Astrophys. J. Lett. 863, L41 (2018).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Thrane, E. & Talbot, C. An introduction to Bayesian inference in gravitational-wave astronomy: parameter estimation, model selection, and hierarchical models. Publ. Astron. Soc. Aust. 36, e010 (2019).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Mandel, I., Farr, W. M. & Gair, J. R. Extracting distribution parameters from multiple uncertain observations with selection biases. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 486, 1086\u20131093 (2019).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Vitale, S., Gerosa, D., Farr, W. M. & Taylor, S. R. in Handbook of Gravitational Wave Astronomy (eds Bambi, C. et al.) 1-160 (Springer, 2022); https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-981-15-4702-7_45-1<\/a><\/p>\n

Abac, A. G. et al. GWTC-4.0: methods for identifying and characterizing gravitational-wave transients. Preprint at https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2508.18081<\/a> (2026).<\/p>\n

Buikema, A. et al. Sensitivity and performance of the Advanced LIGO detectors in the third observing run. Phys. Rev. D 102, 062003 (2020).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Ganapathy, D. et al. Broadband quantum enhancement of the LIGO detectors with frequency-dependent squeezing. Phys. Rev. X 13, 041021 (2023).<\/p>\n

CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Jia, W. et al. Squeezing the quantum noise of a gravitational-wave detector below the standard quantum limit. Science 385, 1318\u20131321 (2024).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n MathSciNet<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n PubMed<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Capote, E. et al. Advanced LIGO detector performance in the fourth observing run. Phys. Rev. D 111, 062002 (2025).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Soni, S. et al. LIGO detector characterization in the first half of the fourth observing run. Class. Quantum Gravity 42, 085016 (2025).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Tiwari, V. Estimation of the sensitive volume for gravitational-wave source populations using weighted Monte Carlo integration. Class. Quantum Gravity 35, 145009 (2018).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n MathSciNet<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Farr, W. M. Accuracy requirements for empirically measured selection functions. Res. Notes AAS 3, 66 (2019).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Essick, R. & Farr, W. Precision requirements for Monte Carlo sums within hierarchical Bayesian inference. Preprint at https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2204.00461<\/a> (2022).<\/p>\n

Essick, R. et al. Compact binary coalescence sensitivity estimates with injection campaigns during the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaborations\u2019 fourth observing run. Phys. Rev. D 112, 102001 (2025).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Ashton, G. et al. Bilby: a user-friendly Bayesian inference library for gravitational-wave astronomy. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 241, 27 (2019).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Romero-Shaw, I. M. et al. Bayesian inference for compact binary coalescences with BILBY: validation and application to the first LIGO\u2013Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalogue. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 499, 3295\u20133319 (2020).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Speagle, J. S. DYNESTY: a dynamic nested sampling package for estimating Bayesian posteriors and evidences. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 493, 3132\u20133158 (2020).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Abbott, R. et al. GWTC-2.1: deep extended catalog of compact binary coalescences observed by LIGO and Virgo during the first half of the third observing run. Phys. Rev. D 109, 022001 (2024).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Abbott, R. et al. GWTC-3: compact binary coalescences observed by LIGO and Virgo during the second part of the third observing run. Phys. Rev. X 13, 041039 (2023).<\/p>\n

CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Abbott, R. et al. Properties and astrophysical implications of the 150 M\u2299 binary black hole merger GW190521. Astrophys. J. Lett. 900, L13 (2020).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Woosley, S. E. The evolution of massive helium stars, including mass loss. Astrophys. J. 878, 49 (2019).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Marchant, P. et al. Pulsational pair-instability supernovae in very close binaries. Astrophys. J. 882, 36 (2019).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Woosley, S. E. & Heger, A. The pair-instability mass gap for black holes. Astrophys. J. Lett. 912, L31 (2021).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Renzo, M. & Smith, N. Pair-instability evolution and explosions in massive stars. Preprint at https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2407.16113<\/a> (2024).<\/p>\n

Spera, M. & Mapelli, M. Very massive stars, pair-instability supernovae and intermediate-mass black holes with the SEVN code. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 470, 4739\u20134749 (2017).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Romero-Shaw, I. M., Thrane, E. & Lasky, P. D. When models fail: an introduction to posterior predictive checks and model misspecification in gravitational-wave astronomy. Publ. Astron. Soc. Aust. 39, e025 (2022).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Miller, S. J., Ko, Z., Callister, T. & Chatziioannou, K. Gravitational waves carry information beyond effective spin parameters but it is hard to extract. Phys. Rev. D 109, 104036 (2024).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Fishbach, M., Essick, R. & Holz, D. E. Does matter matter? Using the mass distribution to distinguish neutron stars and black holes. Astrophys. J. Lett. 899, L8 (2020).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Farah, A. M., Fishbach, M. & Holz, D. E. Two of a kind: comparing big and small black holes in binaries with gravitational waves. Astrophys. J. 962, 69 (2024).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Antonini, F., Callister, T., Dosopoulou, F., Romero-Shaw, I. & Chattopadhyay, D. Inferring the pair-instability mass gap from gravitational wave data. Phys. Rev. D 112, 063040 (2025).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n MathSciNet<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Abbott, R. et al. GW190521: a binary black hole merger with a total mass of 150 M\u2299. Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 101102 (2020).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n PubMed<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Galaudage, S., Talbot, C. & Thrane, E. Gravitational-wave inference in the catalog era: evolving priors and marginal events. Phys. Rev. D 102, 083026 (2020).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Fishbach, M., Farr, W. M. & Holz, D. E. The most massive binary black hole detections and the identification of population outliers. Astrophys. J. Lett. 891, L31 (2020).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Doctor, Z., Wysocki, D., O\u2019Shaughnessy, R., Holz, D. E. & Farr, B. Black hole coagulation: modeling hierarchical mergers in black hole populations. Astrophys. J. 893, 35 (2020).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Kimball, C. et al. Black hole genealogy: identifying hierarchical mergers with gravitational waves. Astrophys. J. 900, 177 (2020).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Kimball, C. et al. Evidence for hierarchical black hole mergers in the second LIGO\u2013Virgo gravitational wave catalog. Astrophys. J. Lett. 915, L35 (2021).<\/p>\n

Article<\/a>\u00a0
\n ADS<\/a>\u00a0
\n CAS<\/a>\u00a0
\n
\n Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Tong, H. et al. Evidence of the pair instability gap in the distribution of black hole masses data release. Zenodo https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5281\/zenodo.18222409<\/a> (2026).<\/p>\n

LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration & KAGRA Collaboration. GWTC-4.0: parameter estimation data release. Zenodo https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5281\/zenodo.16053484<\/a> (2025).<\/p>\n

LIGO Scientific Collaboration & Virgo Collaboration. GWTC-2.1: deep extended catalog of compact binary coalescences observed by LIGO and Virgo during the first half of the third observing run – parameter estimation data release. Zenodo https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5281\/zenodo.6513631<\/a> (2022).<\/p>\n

LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration & KAGRA Collaboration. GWTC-3: compact binary coalescences observed by LIGO and Virgo during the second part of the third observing run \u2014 parameter estimation data release. Zenodo https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5281\/zenodo.5546663<\/a> (2021).<\/p>\n

LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration & KAGRA Collaboration. GWTC-4.0 cumulative search sensitivity estimates. Zenodo https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5281\/zenodo.16740128<\/a> (2025).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fowler, W. A. & Hoyle, F. Neutrino processes and pair formation in massive stars and supernovae. Astrophys. J.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[138347,1928,1929,111,139,69,147,392,1187],"class_list":["post-359745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-compact-astrophysical-objects","tag-humanities-and-social-sciences","tag-multidisciplinary","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space","tag-stellar-evolution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}