Gravitational-wave detections are starting to allow us to probe the physical processes in the evolution of very massive stars through the imprints they leave on their final remnants. Stellar evolution theory predicts the existence of a gap in the black hole mass distribution at high mass due to the effects of pair instability. Previously, we showed that the location of the gap is robust against model uncertainties, but it does depend sensitively on the uncertain ##IMG## [http://ej.iop.org/images/2041-8205/902/2/L36/apjlabbaddieqn3.gif] {${}^{12}{\rm{C}}{(\alpha ,\gamma )}^{16}{\rm{O}}$} rate. This rate is of great astrophysical significance and governs the production of oxygen at the expense of carbon. We use the open-source MESA stellar evolution code to evolve massive helium stars to probe the location of the mass gap. We find that the maximum black hole mass below the gap varies between ##IMG## [http://ej...] {$40\,{M}_{\odot }$}

中文翻译：

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12 C（α，γ）16 O速率对二元黑洞合并的引力波检测的约束

引力波检测开始使我们能够通过它们在最终残留物上留下的痕迹来探究巨大恒星演化过程中的物理过程。恒星演化理论预测，由于对不稳定的影响，黑洞质量分布中存在高质量的间隙。先前，我们显示了间隙的位置对模型不确定性具有鲁棒性，但确实确实取决于不确定性## IMG ## [http://ej.iop.org/images/2041-8205/902/2/ L36 / apjlabbaddieqn3.gif] {$ {} ^ {12} {\ rm {C}} {{\\ alpha，\ gamma}} ^ {16} {\ rm {O}} $}）。该速率具有极大的天体物理意义，并控制了以碳为代价的氧气的生产。我们使用开源的MESA恒星演化代码来演化大量的氦星，以探测质量间隙的位置。