Can isolated binaries form unequal-mass binary black-hole mergers with a high-spin primary black hole?

Abstract: GWTC-5 has revealed a subpopulation of merging binary black holes (BBHs) with a high-spin primary black hole (BH) and possibly unequal BH masses. GW241110 additionally exhibits a large spin-orbit misalignment, which suggests a hierarchical-merger origin. However, other formation scenarios are possible or even likely, especially for events without constraints on spin-orbit misalignment. As an alternative to hierarchical mergers, we investigate whether binary evolution can produce unequal-mass BBH mergers with a high-spin primary BH. Rather than performing comprehensive population-synthesis calculations, we examine the evolutionary pathways of forming merging BBHs and assess their uncertainties. We identify two possible pathways for producing unequal-mass BBHs with a high-spin primary. In initially wide binaries, mass-ratio reversal can make the tidally spun-up second-born BH both more massive and more rapidly rotating than the first-born BH; alternatively, in an initially close, unequal-mass binary, the primary star may evolve chemically homogeneously, while the secondary star evolves normally, producing a high-spin first-born BH that is more massive than its companion. Generally, large spin-orbit misalignment can be produced by large natal kicks or tertiary-induced nodal precession and/or Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai oscillations. We conclude that hierarchical mergers are not uniquely required to produce unequal-mass BBHs with a high-spin primary BH, although each isolated-binary pathway faces important theoretical constraints. Future detections of more merger events with primary BH spins around 0.7 would discriminate between binary evolution and hierarchical merger origin.