Smoking-gun evidence for hierarchical black-hole mergers

arXiv:2607.01121 · astro-ph.HE, astro-ph.CO, astro-ph.GA, gr-qc · Submitted 2026-07-01 · Read on arXiv

Yin-Jie Li, Yuan-Zhu Wang, Shao-Peng Tang, Yi-Zhong Fan

astro-ph.HE, astro-ph.CO, astro-ph.GA, gr-qc

Submitted: 2026-07-01

Comments: 30pages (8 for main text, 12 for method, 10 for supplementary), 13 figures (3 in main text, 4 Extend Data Figures, 6 Supplementary Figures), 3 Tables

License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/

Terminology

• Consistency — 6× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
• Bayesian Inference — 5× in this paper · explained in 5 episodes
• Trace — 5× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Alignment — 4× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
• AGN — 3× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
• Benchmark — 3× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Fine-Tuning — 3× in this paper · explained in 5 episodes
• Robustness — 2× in this paper · explained in 5 episodes
• Accuracy — 1× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
• Optimal Transport — 1× in this paper · explained in 5 episodes
• Wasserstein Distance — 1× in this paper · explained in 4 episodes
• alpha — 1× in this paper · explained in 1 episode

Sources

• GWTC-4.0: Updating the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog with Observations from the First Part of the Fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Observing Run
• GWTC-5.0: Observations from the Second Part of the Fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Observing Run and Updates to the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog
• The spin magnitude of stellar-mass binary black holes evolves with the mass: evidence from gravitational wave data
• Evidence for Three Subpopulations of Merging Binary Black Holes at Different Primary Masses
• Aligned Hierarchical Black Hole Mergers in Active-Galactic-Nuclei Disks Revealed by GWTC-4
• Signatures of a subpopulation of hierarchical mergers in the GWTC-4 gravitational-wave dataset
• Accretion-Driven Evolution of Compact-Object Populations in Gas-Rich Environments and the Origin of Massive Gravitational-Wave Sources
• High-Spin BBH Subpopulation from AGN Accretion
• GWTC-5.0: Population Properties of Merging Compact Binaries
• Low-mass failed supernovae and the $10\,M_{\odot}$ peak in the merging black hole mass distribution
• Second-Generation Mass Peak in the Gravitational-Wave Population as a Probe of Globular Clusters

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• XRISM Resolve Spectroscopy of GX 5-1: Constraints on Iron Spectral Features in a Luminous Neutron-Star Binary
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