The cosmic merger rate of neutron stars and black holes

Abstract

Six gravitational wave detections have been reported so far, providing crucial insights on the merger rate of double compact objects. We investigate the cosmic merger rate of double neutron stars (DNSs), neutron star black hole binaries (NSBHs), and black hole binaries (BHBs) by means of population-synthesis simulations coupled with the Illustris cosmological simulation. We have performed six different simulations, considering different assumptions for the efficiency of common envelope (CE) ejection and exploring two distributions for the supernova (SN) kicks. The current BHB merger rate derived from our simulations spans from ∼150 to ∼240 Gpc−3 yr−1 and is only mildly dependent on CE efficiency. In contrast, the current merger rates of DNSs (ranging from ∼20 to ∼600 Gpc−3 yr−1) and NSBHs (ranging from ∼10 to ∼100 Gpc−3 yr−1) strongly depend on the assumptions on CE and natal kicks. The merger rate of DNSs is consistent with the one inferred from the detection of GW170817 only if a high efficiency of CE ejection and low-SN kicks (drawn from a Maxwellian distribution with one-dimensional root mean square σ = 15 km s−1) are assumed.