No peaks without valleys: The stable mass transfer channel for gravitational-wave sources in light of the neutron star-black hole mass gap

Understand

Gravitational-wave (GW) detections are starting to reveal features in the mass distribution of double compact objects.

• The lower end of the black hole (BH) mass distribution is especially interesting as few formation channels contribute here and because it is more robust against variations in the cosmic star formation than the high mass end.
• In this work we explore the stable mass transfer channel for the formation of GW sources with a focus on the low-mass end of the mass distribution.
• We conduct an extensive exploration of the uncertain physical processes that impact this channel.