Summaries of LSC Scientific Publications

We now feature, for each new research article, a summary 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.

Latest 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: The population properties of compact objects following LIGO/Virgo Run O3a [flyer] \| [fr] \| [it] \| [ja] \| [zh-Hant] Testing General Relativity with Gravitational Waves from the first half of the LIGO-Virgo 3rd Observing Run [flyer] \| [fr] \| [de] \| [it] \| [ja] \| [ko] \| [pl] \| [zh-Hant] Searching for hidden gravitational waves produced by gamma-ray burst events in O3a [flyer] \| [fr] \| [de] \| [it] \| [ja] \| [ko] \| [pl] \| [zh-Hant]
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]
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
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]
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]
Other recent summaries
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]
May 27, 2021	Ultralight dark matter eludes detection [flyer] \| [ja] \| [pl] \| [pt] \| [vi]
May 26, 2021	Search for continuous gravitational waves from young supernova remnants in early O3 data [flyer] \| [es] \| [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]
Apr 30, 2021	Surfing the big glitcher: gravitational waves from r-mode oscillations in PSR J0537-6910 [flyer] \| [it] \| [ja] \| [pl] \| [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] \| [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]
Older 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: Binary Black Hole Populations [flyer] \| [de] \| [es] \| [fr] Electromagnetic Followup Campaigns [flyer] Tests of General Relativity with gravitational waves from black hole mergers [flyer] \| [de]
GW170608 (Nov 15, 2017)	GW170608: LIGO's Lightest Black Hole Binary? [flyer] \| [de] \| [fr] \| [it]
GW170817 (Oct 16, 2017)	GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral [flyer] \| [de] \| [es] \| [fr] \| [it] \| [ru] \| [zh] Companion papers: The Dawn of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics: Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger [flyer] \| [de] \| [fr] \| [it] \| [es] \| [zh] Gravitational waves and Gamma-Rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A [flyer] \| [de] \| [fr] \| [it] Measuring the Expansion of the Universe with Gravitational Waves [flyer] \| [de] \| [es] \| [fr] Predicting the aftermath of the neutron star collision that produced GW170817 [flyer] \| [de] \| [fr] \| [it] Searching for the Neutron Star or Black Hole Resulting from GW170817 [flyer] \| [de] Another long hard look for the remnant of GW170817 [flyer] \| [de] Making GW170817: neutron stars, supernovae and trick shots [flyer] \| [de] \| fr] The background symphony of gravitational waves from neutron star and black hole mergers [flyer] \| [de] \| fr] GW170817: How Big are Neutron Stars? [flyer] Testing General Relativity in the Presence of Matter [flyer] \| [de] Using gravitational wave observations to learn about ultra-dense matter [flyer] \| [de]
GW170814 (Sep 27, 2017)	GW170814: A three-detector observation of gravitational waves from a binary black hole coalescence [flyer] \| [de] \| [fr] \| [it] \| [pl] \| [es]
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]
GW151226 (Jun 15, 2016)	GW151226: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a 22 Solar-mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence [flyer] \| [de] \| [es] \| [fr] \| [it]
GW150914 (Feb 11, 2016)	Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger [flyer] \| [de] \| [es] \| [fr] \| [it] \| [ja] \| [zh] Companion papers: Background of gravitational waves expected from binary black hole events like GW150914 [flyer] \| [de] \| [es] Calibration of the Advanced LIGO detectors for the discovery of the binary black-hole merger GW150914 [flyer] \| [de] \| [es] Checking the accuracy of models of gravitational waves for the first measurement of a black hole merger [flyer] \| [ de] Directly comparing the first observed gravitational waves to supercomputer solutions of Einstein's theory [flyer] \| [de] GW150914: The Advanced LIGO Detectors in the Era of First Discoveries [flyer] \| [de] How do we know GW150914 was real? Vetting a gravitational wave signal of astrophysical origin [flyer] \| [de] \| [es] How We Searched For Merging Black Holes And Found GW150914 [flyer] \| [de] Search for Neutrinos from Merging Black Holes [flyer] \| [de] \| [es] The first measurement of a black hole merger and what it means [flyer] \| [de] \| [it] \| [es] Was Einstein right about strong gravity? Using gravitational waves from merging black holes to test General Relativity [flyer] \| [de] \| [es]
Other publications
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]
Jul 29, 2020	No mountains yet on millisecond pulsars [flyer] \| [el] \| [es] \| [fr] \| [it] \| [ja] \| [pl] \| [zh]
May 27, 2020	Improving gravitational wave searches for a wandering continuous wave signal from Scorpius X-1 [flyer]
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]
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
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
Jun 18, 2017	A Sensitive Search for Continuous Gravitational Waves from Scorpius X-1 with Advanced LIGO [flyer]
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]
Apr 20, 2016	The Sensitivity of the Advanced LIGO Detectors at the Beginning of Gravitational Wave Astronomy [flyer] \| [es]
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)

Summaries of LSC Scientific Publications

Latest detections

Other recent summaries

Older detections

Other publications

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

Looking down a detector arm

Translations: language keys