{"id":"doi:10.1103/physrevx.13.011048","kind":"article","title":"Population of Merging Compact Binaries Inferred Using Gravitational Waves through GWTC-3","authors":["R. Abbott","T. D. Abbott","F. Acernese","K. Ackley","C. Adams","N. Adhikari","R. X. Adhikari","V. B. Adya","C. Affeldt","D. Agarwal","M. Agathos","K. Agatsuma","Nancy Aggarwal","O. D. Aguiar","L. Aiello","A. Ain","P. Ajith","Tomotada Akutsu","P. F. de Alarcón","Sarp Akçay","Simone Albanesi","A. Allocca","P. A. Altin","A. Amato","C. Anand"],"author_count":100,"year":2023,"published":"2023-03-29","venue":"Physical Review X","cited_by":890,"doi":"10.1103/physrevx.13.011048","arxiv_id":null,"nct_id":null,"source_url":"https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevx.13.011048","archive_url":"https://space-kitty.com/papers/doi:10.1103/physrevx.13.011048","updated":null,"pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"W4226083230","pdf_url":"http://link.aps.org/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevX.13.011048","abstract":"We report on the population properties of compact binary mergers inferred from gravitational-wave observations of these systems during the first three LIGO-Virgo observing runs. The Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog 3 (GWTC-3) contains signals consistent with three classes of binary mergers: binary black hole, binary neutron star, and neutron star–black hole mergers. We infer the binary neutron star merger rate to be between 10 and 1700 Gpc − 3 yr − 1 and the neutron star–black hole merger rate to be between 7.8 and 140 Gpc − 3 yr − 1 , assuming a constant rate density in the comoving frame and taking the union of 90% credible intervals for methods used in this work. We infer the binary black hole merger rate, allowing for evolution with redshift, to be between 17.9 and 44 Gpc − 3 yr − 1 at a fiducial redshift ( z = 0.2 ). The rate of binary black hole mergers is observed to increase with redshift at a rate proportional to ( 1 + z ) κ with κ = 2. 9 − 1.8 + 1.7 for z ≲ 1 . Using both binary neutron star and neutron star–black hole binaries, we obtain a broad, relatively flat neutron star mass distribution extending from 1.2 − 0.2 + 0.1 to 2.0 − 0.3 + 0.3 M ⊙ . We confidently determine that the merger rate as a function of mass sharply declines after the expected maximum neutron star mass, but cannot yet confirm or rule out the existence of a lower mass gap between neutron stars and black holes. We also find the binary black hole mass distribution has localized over- and underdensities relative to a power-law distribution, with peaks emerging at chirp masses of 8.3 − 0.5 + 0.3 and 27.9 − 1.8 + 1.9 M ⊙ . While we continue to find that the mass distribution of a binary’s more massive component strongly decreases as a function of primary mass, we observe no evidence of a strongly suppressed merger rate above approximately 60 M ⊙ , which would indicate the presence of a upper mass gap. Observed black hole spins are small, with half of spin magnitudes below χ i ≈ 0.25 . While the majority of spins are preferentially aligned with the orbital angular momentum, we infer evidenc","abstract_license":"CC-BY (publisher license, via OpenAlex)","license":"cc-by","is_open_access":true,"retracted":false,"peer_reviewed":null,"categories":["Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research"],"details":null,"provenance":"openalex","attribution":"Abstract of \"Population of Merging Compact Binaries Inferred Using Gravitational Waves through GWTC-3\" by R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, F. Acernese et al., https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevx.13.011048, used under its Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY); markup removed, otherwise unmodified.","topics":[{"slug":"gravitational-waves","name":"Gravitational-Wave Astronomy","domain_slug":"physics"}],"cited_in_dossiers":[{"slug":"gravitational-waves","title":"Gravitational-Wave Astronomy: State of the Field (October 2026)","url":"https://space-kitty.com/dossiers/gravitational-waves"}]}