Teglon: A Pixel-Level Pipeline for Galaxy-Informed Gravitational-Wave Follow-up Planning and Efficiency Analysis
Abstract
We describe Teglon, an open-source database and analysis pipeline engineered to optimize the search for electromagnetic (EM) counterparts to gravitational wave (GW) sources. Teglon constructs a 3D galaxy completeness metric from an input galaxy catalog and convolves it with the 3D localization volume of a GW event, producing an updated posterior map informed by known galaxy distributions. Using Teglon, users can ingest arbitrary instrument footprints --- or download them directly from the Treasure Map --- to generate dynamic observation plans that seamlessly interpolate between targeted galaxy pointing and region tiling. By focusing efforts on high-probability volumes, Teglon significantly reduces the predicted search area to find EM counterparts and increases observational efficiency, especially for small field-of-view (<= 1 deg^2) instruments like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Furthermore, Teglon integrates with Redback to calculate pixel-level model detection efficiencies, enabling custom, event-specific observing strategies or retrospective detection efficiencies on an arbitrary grid of EM transient models. Teglon also supports custom science cases, such as prioritizing Active Galactic Nuclei searches for EM counterparts to binary black hole mergers. Having supported Gravity Collective and related programs from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA third observing run (O3) through O4, Teglon is being continuously developed to support O5 and beyond. We document the public repository lineage and packaging, and provide Version 2.0 as an open-source tool for the community.
Related
- The Wavelet Detection Filter: a real time unmodeled pipeline for gravitational wave transients, ranking coincidences with a graph neural network
- Search for Long-Transient Gravitational Waves from Supernova SN2023ixf using GFH-v2 Pipeline
- Uncertainty estimation of incoming comet trajectories with a thermophysical non-gravitational force model for Comet Interceptor encounter planning
- Unified matched-filter and excess-power pipeline for gravitational-wave detector characterization
- Uncertainty estimation of incoming comet trajectories with a thermophysical non-gravitational force model for Comet Interceptor encounter planning
BibTeX
@misc{coulter2026teglon,
title = {{Teglon: A Pixel-Level Pipeline for Galaxy-Informed Gravitational-Wave Follow-up Planning and Efficiency Analysis}},
author = {D. A. Coulter and P. Darc and C. D. Kilpatrick and R. J. Foley and P. McGill and S. D. Wyatt and R. Hausen},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.10736},
eprint = {2609.10736},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.10736},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Teglon: A Pixel-Level Pipeline for Galaxy-Informed Gravitational-Wave Follow-up Planning and Efficiency Analysis
AU - D. A. Coulter
AU - P. Darc
AU - C. D. Kilpatrick
AU - R. J. Foley
AU - P. McGill
AU - S. D. Wyatt
AU - R. Hausen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/09
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.10736
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.10736
AB - We describe Teglon, an open-source database and analysis pipeline engineered to optimize the search for electromagnetic (EM) counterparts to gravitational wave (GW) sources. Teglon constructs a 3D galaxy completeness metric from an input galaxy catalog and convolves it with the 3D localization volume of a GW event, producing an updated posterior map informed by known galaxy distributions. Using Teglon, users can ingest arbitrary instrument footprints --- or download them directly from the Treasure Map --- to generate dynamic observation plans that seamlessly interpolate between targeted galaxy pointing and region tiling. By focusing efforts on high-probability volumes, Teglon significantly reduces the predicted search area to find EM counterparts and increases observational efficiency, especially for small field-of-view (<= 1 deg^2) instruments like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Furthermore, Teglon integrates with Redback to calculate pixel-level model detection efficiencies, enabling custom, event-specific observing strategies or retrospective detection efficiencies on an arbitrary grid of EM transient models. Teglon also supports custom science cases, such as prioritizing Active Galactic Nuclei searches for EM counterparts to binary black hole mergers. Having supported Gravity Collective and related programs from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA third observing run (O3) through O4, Teglon is being continuously developed to support O5 and beyond. We document the public repository lineage and packaging, and provide Version 2.0 as an open-source tool for the community.
ER -