Compact Binary Coalescence Galaxy Catalog

With our current understanding of binary evolution, rates of formation and coalescence for binary compact objects scale with massive-star formation, and hence the (extinction-corrected) blue luminosity of host galaxies.

Coalescence events in binary compact objects are among the most promising gravitational-wave sources for ground-based gravitational-wave detectors such as LIGO. Our catalog and associated error estimates are important for the interpretation of analyses carried out for LIGO, in constraining the rates of compact binary coalescence, given an astrophysical population model for the sources considered.