Binary vision: The merging black hole binary mass distribution via iterative density estimation

Understand

Binary black hole (BBH) systems detected via gravitational-wave (GW) emission are a recently opened astrophysical frontier with many unknowns and uncertainties.

• Accurate reconstruction of the binary distribution with as few assumptions as possible is desirable for inference on formation channels and environments.
• Most population analyses have, though, assumed a power law in binary mass ratio $q$, and/or assumed a universal $q$ distribution regardless of primary mass.
• Kernel density estimation (KDE)-based methods allow us to dispense with such assumptions and directly estimate the joint binary mass distribution.