articleThe Astrophysical JournalFeb 27, 2026GOLD OA

GW231123: Likely a Product of Successive Mergers from ∼10 Stellar-mass Black Holes

YLYin-Jie LiS少Shao-Peng 少鹏 Tang 唐L灵Ling-Qin 灵钦 Xue 薛Y一Yi-Zhong 一中 Fan 范

Purple Mountain Observatory · University of Florida · +1 more institution

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Abstract

Abstract GW231123 is an exceptionally massive binary black hole (BBH) merger with unusually high component spins. Such extreme properties challenge conventional stellar evolution models, predicting a black hole (BH) mass gap due to pair-instability supernovae. We test possible formation scenarios for GW231123 using population-informed priors on BH spin distributions, in light of population properties built on the previous (GWTC-3) data. Our analysis shows that GW231123 belongs to the high-spin subpopulation that is naturally interpreted as hierarchical BBH mergers. By comparing the spin magnitudes and component masses of GW231123 to those of the remnants of previous mergers, we show that both components of…

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Topics & keywords

Topics
Keywords
  • Binary black hole
  • Binary number
  • Population
  • Black hole (networking)
  • Component (thermodynamics)
  • Product (mathematics)
  • Spin (aerodynamics)
  • Stellar evolution
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