x-ray-binary-catalog

This repository contains a machine-readable version of the table described in https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.06360.

It consists of black-hole candidate X-ray binary catalog constructed by combining and expanding existing catalogues.

In particular, it merges information from the WATCHDOG catalogue (Tetarenko et al 2016), the BlackCat catalogue (Corral-Santana et al 2016) and the XRBCat catalogues (Neumann et al 2023, Avakyan et al 2023).

How to use

The easiest way to read the file while conveniently retaining all the metadata is as an astropy.table.Table as

from astropy.table import Table
table = Table.read("BHXRB_candidate_table_OliveraNieto2026.ecsv")

The definition of each column is in the metadata of the file and also shown in the file table_info.md for convenience

How to reference

If you use this table, please reference the paper (currently under review in A&A)

@ARTICLE{2026arXiv260706360O,
      author = {{Olivera-Nieto}, Laura and {Cowie}, Fraser J. and {Markoff}, Sera and {Fender}, Rob and {Crook-Mansour}, Justine},
       title = "{Extreme particle acceleration in X-ray binaries is linked to their jets}",
     journal = {arXiv e-prints},
    keywords = {High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena},
        year = 2026,
       month = jul,
         eid = {arXiv:2607.06360},
       pages = {arXiv:2607.06360},
         doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2607.06360},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
      eprint = {2607.06360},
primaryClass = {astro-ph.HE},
      adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2026arXiv260706360O},
     adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

but also the original catalogues,

WATCHDOG

@ARTICLE{2016ApJS..222...15T,
      author = {{Tetarenko}, B.~E. and {Sivakoff}, G.~R. and {Heinke}, C.~O. and {Gladstone}, J.~C.},
       title = "{WATCHDOG: A Comprehensive All-sky Database of Galactic Black Hole X-ray Binaries}",
     journal = {\apjs},
    keywords = {accretion, accretion disks, black hole physics, catalogs, stars: black holes, X-rays: binaries, Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena},
        year = 2016,
       month = feb,
      volume = {222},
      number = {2},
         eid = {15},
       pages = {15},
         doi = {10.3847/0067-0049/222/2/15},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
      eprint = {1512.00778},
primaryClass = {astro-ph.HE},
      adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016ApJS..222...15T},
     adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

BlackCAT (website)

@ARTICLE{2016A&A...587A..61C,
       author = {{Corral-Santana}, J.~M. and {Casares}, J. and {Mu{\~n}oz-Darias}, T. and {Bauer}, F.~E. and {Mart{\'\i}nez-Pais}, I.~G. and {Russell}, D.~M.},
        title = "{BlackCAT: A catalogue of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray transients}",
      journal = {\aap},
     keywords = {X-rays: binaries, stars: black holes, catalogs, Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics},
         year = 2016,
        month = mar,
       volume = {587},
          eid = {A61},
        pages = {A61},
          doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/201527130},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
       eprint = {1510.08869},
 primaryClass = {astro-ph.HE},
       adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016A&A...587A..61C},
      adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

and XRBCat (website)

@ARTICLE{2023A&A...675A.199A,
      author = {{Avakyan}, A. and {Neumann}, M. and {Zainab}, A. and {Doroshenko}, V. and {Wilms}, J. and {Santangelo}, A.},
       title = "{XRBcats: Galactic low-mass X-ray binary catalogue}",
     journal = {\aap},
    keywords = {catalogs, binaries: close, stars: late-type, X-rays: binaries, Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena},
        year = 2023,
       month = jul,
      volume = {675},
         eid = {A199},
       pages = {A199},
         doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/202346522},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
      eprint = {2303.16168},
primaryClass = {astro-ph.HE},
      adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023A&A...675A.199A},
     adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

@ARTICLE{2023A&A...677A.134N,
       author = {{Neumann}, M. and {Avakyan}, A. and {Doroshenko}, V. and {Santangelo}, A.},
        title = "{XRBcats: Galactic High Mass X-ray Binary Catalogue★}",
      journal = {\aap},
     keywords = {catalogs, binaries: close, stars: early-type, X-rays: binaries, Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena},
         year = 2023,
        month = sep,
       volume = {677},
          eid = {A134},
        pages = {A134},
          doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/202245728},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
       eprint = {2303.16137},
 primaryClass = {astro-ph.HE},
       adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023A&A...677A.134N},
      adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

The table has columns (WD, BK, XR) which indicate which catalogues each source was included in - so you can cite what is most appropiate for your case.