A List of Galaxies for Gravitational Wave Searches

TL;DR

The paper introduces the Gravitational Wave Galaxy Catalogue (GWGC), a comprehensive, updated list of nearby galaxies and globular clusters designed to improve electromagnetic follow-up searches for gravitational wave events.

Contribution

The GWGC combines multiple existing catalogs into a homogenized, easily updatable database with detailed galaxy information, enhancing the completeness and utility for gravitational wave follow-up efforts.

Findings

GWGC contains 53,255 galaxies and 150 globular clusters within 100 Mpc.

It is more complete than previous catalogs due to recent data integration.

The catalogue reduces degeneracies and is suitable for rapid follow-up observations.

Abstract

We present a list of galaxies within 100 Mpc, which we call the Gravitational Wave Galaxy Catalogue (GWGC), that is currently being used in follow-up searches of electromagnetic counterparts from gravitational wave searches. Due to the time constraints of rapid follow-up, a locally available catalogue of reduced, homogenized data is required. To achieve this we used four existing catalogues: an updated version of the Tully Nearby Galaxy Catalog, the Catalog of Neighboring Galaxies, the V8k catalogue and HyperLEDA. The GWGC contains information on sky position, distance, blue magnitude, major and minor diameters, position angle, and galaxy type for 53,255 galaxies. Errors on these quantities are either taken directly from the literature or estimated based on our understanding of the uncertainties associated with the measurement method. By using the PGC numbering system developed for HyperLEDA, the catalogue has a reduced level of degeneracies compared to catalogues with a similar purpose and is easily updated. We also include 150 Milky Way globular clusters. Finally, we compare the GWGC to previously used catalogues, and find the GWGC to be more complete within 100 Mpc due to our use of more up-to-date input catalogues and the fact that we have not made a blue luminosity cut.