Rapid Stellar and Binary Population Synthesis with COMPAS

Abstract

Compact Object Mergers: Population Astrophysics and Statistics (COMPAS; https://compas.science ) is a public rapid binary population synthesis code. COMPAS generates populations of isolated stellar binaries under a set of parameterized assumptions in order to allow comparisons against observational data sets, such as those coming from gravitational-wave observations of merging compact remnants. It includes a number of tools for population processing in addition to the core binary evolution components. COMPAS is publicly available via the GitHub repository https://github.com/TeamCOMPAS/COMPAS/ , and is designed to allow for flexible modifications as evolutionary models improve. This paper describes the methodology and implementation of COMPAS. It is a living document that will be updated as new features are added to COMPAS; the current document describes COMPAS v02.21.00.