Stable Mass Transfer Can Explain Massive Binary Black Hole Mergers with a High-spin Component

Abstract

Recent gravitational-wave observations showed that binary black hole (BBH) mergers with massive components are more likely to have high effective spins. In the model of isolated binary evolution, BH spins mainly originate from the angular momenta of the collapsing cores before BH formation. Both observations and theories indicate that BHs tend to possess relatively low spins; the origin of fast-spinning BHs remains a puzzle. We investigate an alternative process that stable Case A mass transfer may significantly increase BH spins during the evolution of massive BH binaries. We present detailed binary evolution calculations and find that this process can explain the observed high spins of some massive BBH mergers under the assumption of mildly super-Eddington accretion.