The heaviest black holes discovered through gravitational waves have masses that are difficult to explain with current standard stellar models. This discrepancy may be due to a series of hierarchical mergers, where the observed black holes are themselves the products of previous mergers. Here we present a method to estimate the masses and spins of previous generations of black holes based on the masses and spins of black holes in a binary. Examining the merger GW190521, we find that assuming black hole spins that are consistent with those of merger remnants will alter the reconstructed ancestral spins when compared to results with uninformed priors. At the same time, the inclusion of black hole spins does not significantly affect the mass distributions of the ancestral black holes.

通过引力波发现的最重黑洞的质量很难用当前的标准恒星模型来解释。这种差异可能是由于一系列分层合并造成的，其中观察到的黑洞本身就是先前合并的产物。在这里，我们提出了一种根据双星中黑洞的质量和自旋来估计前几代黑洞的质量和自旋的方法。检查合并 GW190521，我们发现假设黑洞自旋与合并残余物一致，与不知情先验的结果相比，将改变重建的祖先自旋。同时，黑洞自旋的包含并不会显着影响祖先黑洞的质量分布。