Formation of the first three gravitational-wave observations through isolated binary evolution

During its first four months of taking data, Advanced LIGO has detectedgravitational waves from two binary black hole mergers, GW150914 andGW151226, along with the statistically less significant binary blackhole merger candidate LVT151012. Here we use the rapid binary populationsynthesis code COMPAS to show that all three events can be explained bya single evolutionary channel--classical isolated binary evolution viamass transfer including a common envelope phase. We show all threeevents could have formed in low-metallicity environments (Z=0.001) fromprogenitor binaries with typical total masses>~160M\xodot, >~60M\xodot and>~90M\xodot, for GW150914, GW151226 and LVT151012,respectively.