Testing Spin Prior Assumptions of Binary Black Hole Parameter Inference and Their Astrophysical Implications
Abstract
With the growing number of binary black hole (BBH) candidates in the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog 5.0 (GWTC-5.0), an increasing number of BBH systems with distinct properties have been reported. The individual spins are relatively less constrained in the parameter estimations for most events. While the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration (LVK) adopts a uninformative spin prior by default, some binary evolution scenarios have strong predictions on component spins. In this work, we perform Bayesian parameter inference for a subset of BBH events spanning a broad range of properties in the chirp mass, mass ratio, and effective inspiral spin (ℳc-q-χeff) parameter space. We consider three different spin priors: the LVK spin prior and two astrophysically motivated priors, assuming a non-spinning primary BH (χ1 = 0) or a non-spinning secondary BH (χ2 = 0). We find that the non-spinning primary BH prior is disfavored by the data for several systems with high effective inspiral spins, including GW190517_055101, GW190412, GW241113_163507, and GW231028_153006. We suggest that standard common-envelope evolution represents a promising formation channel that can be tested with gravitational-wave observations, and propose a novel method for estimating the merger rate of systems formed through alternative evolutionary channels. We further suggest that the binary evolution involving mass-ratio reversal may provide a possible formation pathway for these systems.
Related
- Parameter degeneracy and information loss in inverse flavor mapping for high-energy astrophysical neutrinos
- Testing various assumptions for radiolysis, non-diffusive chemistry, and chemical desorption in cold cores
- Anisotropy and tracer-profile assumptions in aperture-based strong-lens dynamics: Conditional inference from supernova distance ratios and unresolved stellar kinematics
- Relativistic Spherical Accretion in Nonrotating Black Hole Spacetimes: Astrophysical Implications
- Collisional excitation of HMgC3N by He: rate coefficients and astrophysical implications
BibTeX
@misc{wu2026testing,
title = {{Testing Spin Prior Assumptions of Binary Black Hole Parameter Inference and Their Astrophysical Implications}},
author = {Chen-He Wu and Wei-Hua Guo and Shu-Jin Hou and Yuan-Zhu Wang and Ying Qin},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.33199},
eprint = {2609.33199},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.33199},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Testing Spin Prior Assumptions of Binary Black Hole Parameter Inference and Their Astrophysical Implications
AU - Chen-He Wu
AU - Wei-Hua Guo
AU - Shu-Jin Hou
AU - Yuan-Zhu Wang
AU - Ying Qin
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/27
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.33199
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.33199
AB - With the growing number of binary black hole (BBH) candidates in the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog 5.0 (GWTC-5.0), an increasing number of BBH systems with distinct properties have been reported. The individual spins are relatively less constrained in the parameter estimations for most events. While the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration (LVK) adopts a uninformative spin prior by default, some binary evolution scenarios have strong predictions on component spins. In this work, we perform Bayesian parameter inference for a subset of BBH events spanning a broad range of properties in the chirp mass, mass ratio, and effective inspiral spin (ℳ_c-q-χ_eff) parameter space. We consider three different spin priors: the LVK spin prior and two astrophysically motivated priors, assuming a non-spinning primary BH (χ_1 = 0) or a non-spinning secondary BH (χ_2 = 0). We find that the non-spinning primary BH prior is disfavored by the data for several systems with high effective inspiral spins, including GW190517_055101, GW190412, GW241113_163507, and GW231028_153006. We suggest that standard common-envelope evolution represents a promising formation channel that can be tested with gravitational-wave observations, and propose a novel method for estimating the merger rate of systems formed through alternative evolutionary channels. We further suggest that the binary evolution involving mass-ratio reversal may provide a possible formation pathway for these systems.
ER -