Evidence for Hierarchical Black Hole Mergers in the Second LIGO–Virgo Gravitational Wave Catalog

We study the population properties of merging binary black holes in the second LIGO–Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog assuming they were all formed dynamically in gravitationally bound clusters. Using a phenomenological population model, we infer the mass and spin distribution of first-generation black holes, while self-consistently accounting for hierarchical mergers. Considering a range of cluster masses, we see compelling evidence for hierarchical mergers in clusters with escape velocities ≳100 km s−1. For our most probable cluster mass, we find that the catalog contains at least one second-generation merger with 99% credibility. We find that the hierarchical model is preferred over an alternative model with no hierarchical mergers (Bayes factor ${ \mathcal B }\gt 1400$) and that GW190521 is favored to contain two second-generation black holes with odds ${ \mathcal O }\gt 700$, and GW190519, GW190602, GW190620, and GW190706 are mixed-generation binaries with ${ \mathcal O }\gt 10$. However, our results depend strongly on the cluster escape velocity, with more modest evidence for hierarchical mergers when the escape velocity is ≲100 km s−1. Assuming that all binary black holes are formed dynamically in globular clusters with escape velocities on the order of tens of km s−1, GW190519 and GW190521 are favored to include a second-generation black hole with odds ${ \mathcal O }\gt 1$. In this case, we find that 99% of black holes from the inferred total population have masses that are less than 49M⊙, and that this constraint is robust to our choice of prior on the maximum black hole mass.