Research Note: The Expected Spins of Gravitational Wave Sources With Isolated Field Binary Progenitors

Understand

We explore the consequences of dynamical evolution of field binaries composed of a primary black hole (BH) and a Wolf-Rayet (WR) star in the context of gravitational wave (GW) source progenitors.

• We argue, from general considerations, that the spin of the WR-descendent BH will be maximal in a significant number of cases due to dynamical effects.
• In other cases, the spin should reflect the natal spin of the primary BH which are currently theoretically unconstrained.
• We argue that the three currently published LIGO systems (GW150914, GW151226, LVT151012) suggest that this spin is small.