New binary black hole mergers in the LIGO-Virgo O3a data

The present paper applies a refined detection pipeline to publicly available LIGO-Virgo data from the first half of the third observing run (O3a) to identify new binary black hole (BBH) mergers. The study adds ten new BBH mergers to existing catalogs and provides further evidence for the significance level of previously identified events. The new events display interesting new features that include unexplored ranges of the effective spin and mass ratio, they challenge aspects of stellar collapse models, and have implications for BBH formation channels and black hole mass gaps.