PCAT (Probabilistic Cataloger) samples from the posterior distribution of a metamodel, i.e., union of models with different dimensionality, to compare the models. This is achieved via transdimensional proposals such as births, deaths, splits and merges in addition to the within-model proposals. This method avoids noisy estimates of the Bayesian evidence that may not reliably distinguish models when sampling from the posterior probability distribution of each model.

The code has been applied in two different subfields of astronomy: high energy photometry, where transdimensional elements are gamma-ray point sources; and strong lensing, where light-deflecting dark matter subhalos take the role of transdimensional elements.