Understand
The first and second Gravitational Wave Transient Catalogs by the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration include $50$ confirmed merger events from the first, second, and first half of the third observational runs.
- We compute the distribution of recoil kicks imparted to the merger remnants and estimate their retention probability within various astrophysical environments as a function of the maximum progenitor spin ($\chi_{\rm max}$), assuming that the LIGO/Virgo binary black hole (BBH) mergers were catalyzed by dynamical assembly in a dense star cluster.
- We find that the distributions of average recoil kicks are peaked at about $150$ km s$^{-1}$, $250$ km s$^{-1}$, $350$ km s$^{-1}$, $600$ km s$^{-1}$, for maximum progenitor spins of $0.1$, $0.3$, $0.5$, $0.8$, respectively.
- Only environments with escape speed $\gtrsim 100$ km s$^{-1}$, as found in galactic nuclear star clusters as well as in the most massive globular clusters and super star clusters, could efficiently retain the merger remnants of the LIGO/Virgo BBH population even for low progenitor spins ($\chi_{\rm max}=0.1$).