Evaluating the Merger Rate of Binary Black Holes from Direct Captures and Third-Body Soft Interactions Using the Milky Way Globular Clusters

Understand

The multitude of binary black hole coalescence detections in gravitational waves has renewed our interest on environments that can be the cradle of these mergers.

• In this work we study merger rates of binary black holes in globular clusters that are among the most dense stellar environments and a natural place for the creation of black hole binaries.
• To model these systems with all their variations we rely on the observational properties of the known Milky Way globular clusters.
• We consider direct capture events between black holes, as well as soft interactions of black hole binaries with stars as third bodies that accelerate the evolution of these binaries.