LSC logo - click to go to LSC homepage

Summaries of LSC/LVK Scientific Publications

For each of our new research articles, we feature a summary of the paper's key points written for the general public. Simply click on any of the titles for an online version, or on the '[flyer]' links for a downloadable file in PDF format. Translations into several languages are also available for some of these summaries. Where not noted separately, translations can be accessed through their language acronyms (e.g. 'es' for Spanish, also see details in the sidebar) or from the top of the English online versions. Most recent papers, and their summaries, are written together by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), the Virgo Collaboration and the KAGRA Collaboration, forming the LVK collaboration.

2023


August 31, 2023 A Systematic Search for Gamma-Ray Transients Associated with Gravitational-Wave Events in the O3 Run [flyer]
April 25, 2023 A sensitive search for continuous gravitational waves from Scorpius X-1 in O3 [flyer]
April 18, 2023 The Gravitational Wave Universe Through The Lens: Searching For Lensing Signature In The Latest LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA Catalog [flyer] | [ca] | [es] | [it]
March 27, 2023 Open science with the data from the O3 observation run [flyer]

2022


Dec 06, 2022 The quest for black holes lighter than our sun [flyer]
Nov 17, 2022 Searching for Gravitational Waves from Magnetar Bursts [flyer]
Apr 12, 2022 Probing the neutron star and boson cloud population at the heart of our Galaxy [flyer] | [ca] | [es]
Mar 22, 2022 Searching for hidden gravitational waves produced by fast radio burst events in O3a [flyer]
Mar 03, 2022 Results from the O3 GEO-KAGRA Observing Run [flyer] | [de] | [es] | [it] | [ja] | [zh-Hans]
Jan 27, 2022 Searching For A Wandering Continuous Wave Signal From Scorpius X-1 in O3 [flyer] | [ca] | [es]
Jan 05, 2022 Search for gravitational waves from rotating neutron stars in our Galaxy with LIGO and Virgo O3 data [flyer] | [ca] | [es]

2021


Dec 21, 2021 Narrow-band searches for continuous and long-duration transient gravitational waves from known pulsars in the third LIGO-Virgo observing run [flyer] | [ca] | [es] | [it]
Dec 01, 2021 Checking in on Old Friends: Cassiopeia A and Vela Jr. [flyer]
Dec 01, 2021 Gravitational waves from pulsars? Looking within and beyond General Relativity [flyer] | [it]
Nov 30, 2021 Observations constraining dark matter clouds around spinning black holes in our galaxy [flyer] | [it]
detections: GWTC-3
(Nov 07, 2021)
GWTC-3, a third catalog of gravitational-wave detections [flyer]

Also in: Catalan [ca] | Chinese (simplified) [zh-Hans] | Chinese (traditional) [zh-Hant] | French [fr] | German [de] | Italian [it] | Japanese [ja] | Polish [pl] | Spanish [es]

Companion papers: (also available in some other languages):
Oct 27, 2021 All-sky, all-frequency search for persistent gravitational waves from Advanced LIGO’s and Advanced Virgo’s first three observing runs [flyer]
Sep 28, 2021 A Search For Subsolar-Mass Black Holes [flyer] | [it]
Sep 20, 2021 Searching for gravitational waves from neutron stars sipping on their companions [flyer]
detections: GWTC-2.1
(Aug 02, 2021)
GWTC-2.1: Extended catalog of Binary Mergers Observed by LIGO and Virgo During the First Half of the Third Observing Run [flyer]

Also in: Italian [it] | Japanese [ja]

Jul 30, 2021 All-sky search for long-duration gravitational-wave bursts in the third Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo run [flyer] | [ja]
Jul 09, 2021 Opening our ears to short gravitational-wave bursts in the third LIGO–Virgo observing run [flyer] | [it]
Jul 01, 2021 To Find a Bulge – Searching Everywhere for Non-Axisymmetric Neutron Stars [flyer] | [it] | [pt]
detections: GW200105 and GW200115
(Jun 29, 2021)
A new source of gravitational waves: neutron star–black hole binaries [flyer]

Also in: Blackfoot [bla] | Catalan [ca] | Chinese (traditional) [zh-Hant] | French [fr] | German [de] | Greek [el] | Italian [it] | Japanese [ja] | Polish [pl] | Portuguese [pt] | Spanish [es]

May 31, 2021 A Symphony of Giant Monsters: Searching for intermediate-mass black hole binaries in Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo’s Third Observing Run [flyer] | [it] | [ja] | [zh]
May 27, 2021 Ultralight dark matter eludes detection [flyer] | [es] | [it] | [ja] | [pl] | [pt] | [vi]
May 26, 2021 Search for continuous gravitational waves from young supernova remnants in early O3 data [flyer] | [es] | [ja] | [pl] | [pt] | [zh]
May 13, 2021 Gravity bending gravity: are any of the O3a LIGO-Virgo detections gravitationally lensed? [flyer] | [es] | [it] | [ja] | [pl] | [pt] | [zh]
Apr 30, 2021 Surfing the big glitcher: gravitational waves from r-mode oscillations in PSR J0537-6910 [flyer] | [es] | [it] | [ja] | [pl] | [pt] | [zh]
Mar 19, 2021 Binary black holes tell us how fast the universe is expanding [flyer] | [pt]
Mar 16, 2021 Search for anisotropies in the gravitational-wave backgrounds [flyer] | [es] | [it] | [ja]
Feb 01, 2021 Constraints on cosmic strings using data from the third Advanced LIGO-Virgo observing run [flyer] | [es] | [it] | [ja] | [pl] | [pt] | [zh]
Feb 01, 2021 Upper Limits on the Isotropic Gravitational-Wave Background from Advanced LIGO's and Advanced Virgo's First Three Observing Runs [flyer] | [es] | [it] | [ja] | [nl] | [pl] | [pt]

2020


Dec 25, 2020 You Spin Me Round (Like A Star): Searching for continuous gravitational waves from unknown binary neutron stars [flyer] | [ca] | [es] | [it] | [ja] | [pl] | [pt] | [zh]
Dec 25, 2020 Why is the X-ray pulsar J0537-6910 slowing down so rapidly? [flyer] | [es] | [it] | [ja] | [pl] | [pt]
detections: GWTC-2
(Oct 28, 2020)
Catalog paper summarizing previous and new detections from the O3a observing run:

GWTC-2: An Expanded Catalog Of Gravitational-Wave Detections [flyer]

Also in: Bengali [bn] | Catalan [ca] | Chinese (simplified) [zh-Hans] | Chinese (traditional) [zh-Hant] | French [fr] | German [de] | Greek [el] | Hindi [hi] | Italian [it] | Japanese [ja] | Korean [ko] | Polish [pl] | Spanish [es] .

Companion papers:
detection: GW190521
(Sep 2, 2020)
GW190521: The Most Massive Black Hole Collision Observed To Date [flyer]

Also in: Blackfoot [bla] | Catalan [ca] | Chinese (traditional) [zh-Hant] | Dutch [nl] | French [fr] | Galician [gl] | German [de] | Greek [el] | Hindi [hi] | Hungarian [hu] | Italian [it] | Japanese [ja] | Korean [ko] | Marathi [mr] | Polish [pl] | Spanish [es]

Jul 29, 2020 No mountains yet on millisecond pulsars [flyer] | [el] | [es] | [fr] | [it] | [ja] | [pl] | [zh]
detection: GW190814
(Jun 23, 2020)
The Curious Case of GW190814: The Coalescence of a Stellar-Mass Black Hole and a Mystery Compact Object [flyer]

Also in: Blackfoot [bla] | Chinese (traditional) [zh-Hant] | Dutch [nl] | French [fr] | German [de] | Italian [it] | Japanese [ja] | Marathi [mr] | Polish [pl] | Spanish [es]

Supplement: Measuring Cosmic Expansion with Dark Standard Siren GW190814

May 27, 2020 Improving gravitational wave searches for a wandering continuous wave signal from Scorpius X-1 [flyer]
detection: GW190412
(Apr 20, 2020)
GW190412: The First Observation of an Unequal-Mass Black Hole Merger [flyer]

Also in: Bengali [bn] | Blackfoot [bla] | Chinese (traditional) [zh-Hant] | Dutch [nl] | French [fr] | German [de] | Italian [it] | Japanese [ja] | Korean [ko] | Marathi [mr] | Nepali [ne] | Polish [pl] | Spanish [es]

Mar 04, 2020 How Gravitational-Wave Alerts during the second Advanced LIGO and Virgo observing run enabled the multi-messenger discovery of GW170817 [flyer]
Mar 02, 2020 Searching for weak gamma-ray bursts paired with gravitational-wave events [flyer]
Jan 08, 2020 Open data from the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo [flyer] | [pt]
detection: GW190425
(Jan 06, 2020)
GW190425: The heaviest binary neutron star system ever seen? [flyer]

Also in: Chinese [zh] | French [fr] | German [de] | Greek [el] | Hebrew [he] | Italian [it] | Japanese [ja] | Korean [ko] | Portuguese [pt] | Spanish [es]

2019


Dec 20, 2019 An Optically Targeted Search for Gravitational Waves from Core-Collapse Supernovae during O1 and O2 [flyer]
Nov 29, 2019 Search for Eccentric Binary Black Hole Mergers [flyer] | [de]
Nov 29, 2019 Constraining the p-mode - g-mode tidal instability with GW170817 [flyer] | [de]
Oct 14, 2019 In Pursuit of a Multi-Messenger Mystery: Gravitational Waves from Gamma-Ray Bursts in LIGO's Second Observing Run [flyer] | [de]
Oct 14, 2019 A search for sub-solar mass black holes [flyer] | [de]
Oct 14, 2019 Testing General Relativity in the Presence of Matter [flyer] | [de]
Aug 30, 2019 A guide to LIGO-Virgo detector noise and extraction of transient gravitational-wave signals [flyer] | [de] | [fr] | [it]
Aug 19, 2019 Hunting for gravitational waves from known pulsars relaxing the spin assumption with LIGO O2 data [flyer] | [de]
Aug 12, 2019 Using gravitational wave observations to learn about ultra-dense matter [flyer] | [de]
Aug 07, 2019 Digging deeper into the data for the youngest neutron stars in the galaxy [flyer] | [de]
Jul 12, 2019 All-sky search for short-duration gravitational wave transients in the second Advanced LIGO observing run [flyer] | [de]
Jun 21, 2019 Search for intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first and second observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Virgo network [flyer] | [de]
May 28, 2019 All-sky search for continuous gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars using Advanced LIGO O2 data [flyer] | [de]
May 28, 2019 Searching for persistent gravitational waves with Advanced LIGO data from the second observing run [flyer] | [de]
May 28, 2019 Searching for continuous gravitational waves from pulsars at two frequencies [flyer] | [de]
Apr 01, 2019 All-sky search for long-duration gravitational wave transients in the second Advanced LIGO observing run [flyer] | [de]
Mar 12, 2019 Tests of General Relativity with gravitational waves from black hole mergers [flyer] | [de]
Mar 08, 2019 Searching for a Gravitational Wave Background During Advanced LIGO's Second Observing Run [flyer] | [de]
Mar 08, 2019 Searching for Gravitational Waves from Magnetars [flyer] | [de]

2018


detections: GWTC-1
(Dec 03, 2018)
Catalog paper summarizing previous and new detections from the first two advanced detector observing runs:

GWTC-1: A New Catalog of Gravitational-Wave Detections [flyer] | [de] | [es] | [fr] | [it] | [pl]

Companion papers:
Nov 09, 2018 All-sky search for long-duration gravitational wave transients in the first Advanced LIGO observing run [flyer]
Oct 30, 2018 A search for sub-solar mass black holes [flyer]
Oct 30, 2018 Searching for Gravitational Waves From Cosmic Strings [flyer]
Jun 4, 2018 Looking for "Forbidden" Polarizations in the Gravitational-wave Background with Advanced LIGO [flyer]
Jun 4, 2018 First Search for Continuous Gravitational Waves beyond General Relativity [flyer]
Jun 4, 2018 Hunting for Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars within a Narrow Range of Candidate Frequencies [flyer]
Jun 4, 2018 All-sky Search for High-frequency Continuous Gravitational Waves in the First Advanced LIGO Observing Run [flyer]
Mar 16, 2018 A Bright Today and Brighter Tomorrow: Prospects for Gravitational-wave Astronomy With Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo, and KAGRA [flyer]
Mar 5, 2018 Hunting Low-Frequency Continuous Gravitational Waves With the Einstein@Home Distributed Computing System [flyer]
Mar 5, 2018 Searching the Entire Sky for Continuous Gravitational Waves from Rapidly Rotating Neutron Stars in Advanced LIGO Data [flyer]
Mar 5, 2018 Searching for Gravitational Waves from a Nearby Globular Cluster [flyer]
Mar 5, 2018 All-sky Search for Continuous Gravitational Waves With the Einstein@Home Distributed Computing System [flyer]

2017


detection: GW170608
(Nov 15, 2017)
GW170608: LIGO's Lightest Black Hole Binary? [flyer] | [de] | [fr] | [it]

detection: GW170817
(Oct 16, 2017)
GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral [flyer] | [de] | [es] | [fr] | [it] | [ru] | [zh]

Companion papers:
detection: GW170814
(Sep 27, 2017)
GW170814: A three-detector observation of gravitational waves from a binary black hole coalescence [flyer] | [de] | [fr] | [it] | [pl] | [es]

Jun 18, 2017 A Sensitive Search for Continuous Gravitational Waves from Scorpius X-1 with Advanced LIGO [flyer]
detection: GW170104
(Jun 1, 2017)
GW170104: Observation of a 50 Solar-mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence at Redshift 0.2 [flyer] | [de] | [es] | [fr] | [it] | [pl] | [zh]

Jun 1, 2017 Search for Mergers of Intermediate-mass Black Holes [flyer]
May 22, 2017 Search for Core-collapse Supernovae in Initial LIGO and Virgo Data [flyer]
May 1, 2017 Searching for Continuous Gravitational-wave Signals: Casting a Wide and Fine Net [flyer]
Apr 12, 2017 Searching for a Wandering Continuous Wave Signal from Scorpius X-1 [flyer]
Feb 3, 2017 Searching for Continuous Gravitational Waves from Pulsars [flyer] | [es]

2016


Dec 13, 2016 Mapping the Gravitational Wave Sky [flyer]
Dec 13, 2016 Listening for the Background of Gravitational Waves with Advanced LIGO [flyer]
Nov 29, 2016 What's Behind the Mysterious Gamma-ray Bursts? LIGO's Search for Clues to Their Origins [flyer]
Jun 21, 2016 Searching for Gravitational Wave Bursts in Coincidence with Short Duration Radio Bursts [flyer]
detection: GW151226
(Jun 15, 2016)
GW151226: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a 22 Solar-mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence [flyer] | [de] | [es] | [fr] | [it]

Apr 20, 2016 The Sensitivity of the Advanced LIGO Detectors at the Beginning of Gravitational Wave Astronomy [flyer] | [es]
detection: GW150914
(Feb 11, 2016)
Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger [flyer] | [de] | [es] | [fr] | [it] | [ja] | [zh]

Companion papers:

2015


Dec 23, 2015 Planning for a Bright Tomorrow: Prospects for Gravitational-wave Astronomy with Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo [flyer] | [es]
Nov 24, 2015 Stuck in the Middle: An All-Sky Search for Gravitational Waves of Intermediate Duration [flyer]
Oct 14, 2015 First Search for Low Frequency Continuous Gravitational Waves Emitted by Unseen Neutron Stars [flyer]
Oct 14, 2015 Scouting Our Galactic Neighborhood [flyer]

2014


Dec 22, 2014 Searching for the Youngest Neutron Stars in the Galaxy [flyer]
Dec 8, 2014 Combing Initial LIGO Data for the Potentially Strong Continuous Wave Emitter Scorpius X-1 [flyer]
Oct 31, 2014 An Extended Search for Gravitational Waves from the Crab and Vela Pulsars [flyer]
Oct 31, 2014 Search for a Gravitational-wave Background Using Co-located LIGO Detectors [flyer]
Oct 30, 2014 Cleaning Up LIGO Data [flyer]
Jul 7, 2014 Capturing Invisible Cosmic Explosions [flyer] | [es]
Jun 25, 2014 Searching for a Background Buzz of Gravitational Waves [flyer]
Jun 4, 2014 Searching for the Continuous Sounds of Unknown Neutron Stars in Binary Systems [flyer]
May 15, 2014 Leveraging the GEO600 Detector to Search for Gravitational Waves from Gamma-ray Bursts [flyer] | [es]
Apr 15, 2014 Searching for Gravitational Waves Associated with Gamma-ray Bursts Detected by the InterPlanetary Network [flyer] | [es]
Apr 09, 2014 Observing the Invisible Collisions of Intermediate Mass Black Holes [flyer] | [es]
Mar 26, 2014 Ringing of the Cosmic Bells: A Search for Black Hole Vibrations [flyer] | [es]
Feb 24, 2014 All-sky Search for Continuous Gravitational Waves in the Virgo Data [flyer] | [es]
Jan 16, 2014 Can we Hear Black Holes Collide? Testing Our Search Methods using Numerically Generated Gravitational-wave Signals [flyer] | [es]

2013


Nov 14, 2013 Do Cosmic Strings Exist? [flyer] | [es]
Nov 14, 2013 Searching for Continuous Gravitational Wave Signals with the Hough Transform [flyer] | [es]
Oct 16, 2013 Scanning the Skies for Cosmic Explosions: First Search for Optical Counterparts to Gravitational Waves [flyer] | [es]
Oct 04, 2013 A Search for Long-lived Gravitational Waves Associated with Long Gamma-ray Bursts [flyer] | [es]
Sep 26, 2013 How High Are Pulsar "Mountains"? [flyer] | [es]
Sep 26, 2013 Listening for the Hum of Neutron Stars in the Center of Our Galaxy [flyer] | [es]
Aug 02, 2013 The Quantum Enhanced LIGO Detector Sets New Sensitivity Record [flyer] | [es]
Apr 05, 2013 What Gravitational Waves Can Tell Us About Colliding Stars and Black Holes [flyer] | [es]

2012


Oct 01, 2012 Dance of the Dead Stars: A Search for Massive Binary Black Hole Coalescences [flyer]
Aug 03, 2012 Hunting Continuous Gravitational Waves with the Einstein@Home Distributed Computing System [flyer]
May 15, 2012 New Cosmic Messengers: First Joint Search for Gravitational Waves and High Energy Neutrinos [flyer]
May 11, 2012 A Search for Gravitational Waves from Gamma-Ray Bursts [flyer]
May 08, 2012 X-Rays and Gravitational Waves: LIGO and Virgo Point the Way for the Swift Satellite [flyer]
Apr 02, 2012 Virgo Data Characterization and Impact on Gravitational Wave Searches [flyer]
Mar 14, 2012 Sensitivity of LIGO and Virgo Gravitational Wave Detectors to Compact Binary Inspirals [flyer]
Feb 15, 2012 Listening for Gravitational Waves with "Ears Wide Open" [flyer]
Feb 06, 2012 Optical, X-ray, and Radio Telescopes Seek Explosive Sources of Gravitational Waves [flyer]
Jan 31, 2012 Search for Gravitational Waves from Intermediate Mass Binary Black Holes [flyer]
Jan 23, 2012 Implications for the Origin of GRB 051103 from LIGO Observations [flyer]
Jan 11, 2012 First Low-Latency LIGO+Virgo Search for Binary Inspirals and their Electromagnetic Counterparts [flyer]
Jan 03, 2012 Directional Limits on Persistent Gravitational Waves Using LIGO S5 Science Data [flyer]

2011


Dec 21, 2011 Upper Limits on a Stochastic GW Background Using LIGO and Virgo Interferometers at 600-1000 Hz [flyer]
Dec 01, 2011 A Search for Gravitational Waves from Inspiraling Neutron Stars and Black Holes [flyer]
Sep 11, 2011 A Gravitational Wave Observatory Operating Beyond the Quantum Shot-noise Limit [flyer]

Looking down a detector arm


Visitors at LIGO Hanford Observatory gaze down the site's X arm. Half of the 4-kilometer length of the arm is visible in the photo. (Credit: LIGO Laboratory)


Translations: language keys


For most summaries, we list the available translations by their ISO 639-1 / ISO 639-2 keys, as listed below. Translations are a volunteer effort and different sets of languages are available for each summary. You can search for the key of your language, in square brackets – for instance [fr] for French – on this page to find all science summaries that have been translated into it.
  • [bla]: Blackfoot
  • [bn]: Bengali (Bangla / বাংলা)
  • [ca]: Catalan (Català)
  • [de]: German (Deutsch)
  • [el]: Greek (Ellinika / Ελληνικά)
  • [es]: Spanish (Español / Castellano)
  • [fr]: French (Français)
  • [gl]: Galician (Galego)
  • [he]: Hebrew (Ivrit / עִבְרִית)
  • [hi]: Hindi (मानक हिन्दी)
  • [hu]: Hungarian (Magyar)
  • [it]: Italian (Italiano)
  • [ja]: Japanese (Nihongo / 日本語)
  • [ko]: Korean (Hanguk-eo / 한국어)
  • [mr]: Marathi (मराठी)
  • [ne]: Nepali (नेपाली)
  • [nl]: Dutch (Nederlands)
  • [pl]: Polish (Polszczyzna)
  • [pt]: Portuguese (Português)
  • [ru]: Russian (Rússkiy / русский)
  • [vi]: Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt)
  • [zh]: Chinese (Hànyǔ); sometimes two versions are available:
    [zh-Hans] (simplified characters / 简化字)
    [zh-Hant] (traditional characters / 正體字/繁體字)
Find us on Facebook   Follow us on Twitter    Follow us on YouTube    Follow us on Instagram