Astronomical Catalogs for Locating Gravitational-wave Events

Understand

Gravitational wave transients are caused by some of the most energetic events in the Universe, and a precise location would allow deep examination of the counterpart by electromagnetic waves (telescopes collecting light), the combination of GW and EM resulting in very much improved science return (multi-messenger Astronomy).

• Since the GW detectors do not provide good localization on the sky, the faint counterpart will be very difficult to find.
• One strategy to help the search is to look first where mass is concentrated and thus the prior probability of GW events is highest.
• In the first part of this paper, we present methods used to estimate stellar masses and metallicities of galaxies and galaxy clusters in different catalogs.