Chandra Sekhar Saraf (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute)
Abbas Askar (CAMK PAN, Warsaw)
Since 2015, the detection of more than 200 gravitational-wave mergers of compact-object binaries has been announced by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA collaboration, opening a new observational window onto the Universe and providing detailed information on the demographics of compact objects, in particular black holes. Yet, the astrophysical origin of these sources remains an open question. In this talk, I will review the main proposed formation pathways for compact-object mergers, including isolated binary evolution and various dynamical channels. I will focus in particular on the dynamical formation of gravitational-wave sources in dense stellar environments such as star clusters and galactic nuclei, highlighting their characteristic signatures, expected rates, and how future observations may help us distinguish between different formation scenarios.
Maciej Zgirski (Institute of Physics, PAN,, Warsaw)
