Compact Remnant Mass Function: Dependence on the Explosion Mechanism and Metallicity

Abstract

The mass distribution of neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes provides vital clues into the nature of stellar core collapse and the physical engine responsible for supernova explosions. Using recent advances in our understanding of supernova engines, we derive mass distributions of stellar compact remnants. We provide analytical prescriptions for compact object masses for major population synthesis codes. In an accompanying paper, Belczynski et al., we demonstrate that these qualitatively new results for compact objects can explain the observed gap in the remnant mass distribution between ~2-5 solar masses and that they place strong constraints on the nature of the supernova engine. Here, we show that advanced gravitational radiation detectors (like LIGO/VIRGO or the Einstein Telescope) will be able to further test the supernova explosion engine models once double black hole inspirals are detected.