Impact of initial mass functions on the dynamical channel of gravitational wave sources

Understand

Dynamically formed black hole (BH) binaries (BBHs) are important sources of gravitational waves (GWs).

• Globular clusters (GCs) provide a major environment to produce such BBHs, but the total mass of the known GCs is small compared to that in the Galaxy; thus, the fraction of BBHs formed in GCs is also small.
• However, this assumes that GCs contain a canonical initial mass function (IMF) similar to that of field stars.
• This might not be true because several studies suggest that extreme dense and metal-poor environment can result in top-heavy IMFs, where GCs may originate.