COMPAS: A rapid binary population synthesis suite

Most massive stars—those with initial masses greater than 8 M⊙—are born with another massive star as a companion (Moe & Di Stefano, 2017; Sana et al., 2012). Massive binary
stars are responsible for producing many exotic astrophysical phenomena, such as the observed diversity of supernovae, binary pulsars, X-ray binaries and merging compact objects. The latter are now regularly observed by the ground-based gravitational wave observatories Advanced LIGO and Virgo (B. P. Abbott et al., 2016; R. Abbott et al., 2021). Population models of massive binary evolution make it possible to interpret existing observations and to make predictions for future observing campaigns.