The nature of the transition between neutron stars and black holes is an open question in the astronomy community. Some observations have identified a lack of events between the population of neutron stars and that of low-mass black holes. Other analysts of these data claim that this lack of events is unphysical. There are models that explain this purported "lower mass gap", and others that predict a smooth transition from the maximum neutron star mass to the minimum black hole mass.
I am interested in using populations of gravitational wave sources to probe this transition. In turn, I use the features found at this transition to shed light on the nature fo gravitational wave events whose source classifications continue to elude us.