Simulating the Extragalactic Binary Confusion Foreground for the LISA Mission

Understanding the gravitational wave (GW) sources in the local universe is significant to several fields in astrophysics. Constructing a complete map of the potential GW sources for the nearby universe to the extent of around 100 Mpc is specifically critical for the studies and developments of gravitational wave obsevatories like the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). We focus on the most numerous and one of the most important type of sources of LISA - ultra-compact binaries, which exist mostly in galaxies. We use population synthesis software - COSMIC to simulate the stellar populations appropriate to each of the 50,000 galaxies in the Gravitational Wave Galaxy Catalogue (GWGC), accounting for the galaxy type, mass, galactic metallcity, and distance to estimate the resulting contribution to the confusion foreground from nearby extragalactic galaxies.