The Science of the Einstein Telescope
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2026-04-15 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Nuclear Theory
Abstract
Einstein Telescope (ET) is the European project for a gravitational-wave (GW) observatory of third-generation. In this paper we present a comprehensive discussion of its science objectives, providing state-of-the-art predictions for the capabilities of ET in both geometries currently under consideration, a single-site triangular configuration or two L-shaped detectors. We discuss the impact that ET will have on domains as broad and diverse as fundamental physics, cosmology, early Universe, astrophysics of compact objects, physics of matter in extreme conditions, and dynamics of stellar collapse. We discuss how the study of extreme astrophysical events will be enhanced by multi-messenger observations. We highlight the ET synergies with ground-based and space-borne GW observatories, including multi-band investigations of the same sources, improved parameter estimation, and complementary information on astrophysical or cosmological mechanisms obtained combining observations from different frequency bands. We present advancements in waveform modeling dedicated to third-generation observatories, along with open tools developed within the ET Collaboration for assessing the scientific potentials of different detector configurations. We finally discuss the data analysis challenges posed by third-generation observatories, which will enable access to large populations of sources and provide unprecedented precision.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2503.12263,
title = {The Science of the Einstein Telescope},
author = {Adrian Abac and Raul Abramo and Simone Albanesi and Angelica Albertini and Alessandro Agapito and Michalis Agathos and Conrado Albertus and Nils Andersson and Tomas Andrade and Igor Andreoni and Federico Angeloni and Marco Antonelli and John Antoniadis and Fabio Antonini and Manuel Arca Sedda and M. Celeste Artale and Stefano Ascenzi and Pierre Auclair and Matteo Bachetti and Charles Badger and Biswajit Banerjee and David Barba-Gonzalez and Daniel Barta and Nicola Bartolo and Andreas Bauswein and Andrea Begnoni and Freija Beirnaert and Michal Bejger and Enis Belgacem and Nicola Bellomo and Laura Bernard and Maria Grazia Bernardini and Sebastiano Bernuzzi and Christopher P. L. Berry and Emanuele Berti and Gianfranco Bertone and Dario Bettoni and Miguel Bezares and Swetha Bhagwat and Sofia Bisero and Marie Anne Bizouard and Jose J. Blanco-Pillado and Simone Blasi and Alice Bonino and Alice Borghese and Ssohrab Borhanian and Elisa Bortolas and Maria Teresa Botticella and Marica Branchesi and Matteo Breschi and Richard Brito and Enzo Brocato and Floor S. Broekgaarden and Tomasz Bulik and Alessandra Buonanno and Fiorella Burgio and Adam Burrows and Gianluca Calcagni and Sofia Canevarolo and Enrico Cappellaro and Giulia Capurri and Carmelita Carbone and Roberto Casadio and Ramiro Cayuso and Pablo Cerda-Duran and Prasanta Char and Sylvain Chaty and Tommaso Chiarusi and Martyna Chruslinska and Francesco Cireddu and Philippa Cole and Alberto Colombo and Monica Colpi and Geoffrey Compere and Carlo Contaldi and Maxence Corman and Francesco Crescimbeni and Sergio Cristallo and Elena Cuoco and Giulia Cusin and Tito Dal Canton and Gergely Dalya and Paolo D'Avanzo and Nazanin Davari and Valerio De Luca and Viola De Renzis and Massimo Della Valle and Walter Del Pozzo and Federico De Santi and Alessio Ludovico De Santis and Tim Dietrich and Ema Dimastrogiovanni and Guillem Domenech and Daniela Doneva and Marco Drago and Ulyana Dupletsa and Hannah Duval and Irina Dvorkin and Nancy Elias-Rosa and Stephen Fairhurst and Anthea F. Fantina and Matteo Fasiello and Maxime Fays and Rob Fender and Tobias Fischer and Francois Foucart and Tassos Fragos and Stefano Foffa and Gabriele Franciolini and Jacopo Fumagalli and Jonathan Gair and Rossella Gamba and Juan Garcia-Bellido and Cecilio Garcia-Quiros and Laszlo Arpad Gergely and Giancarlo Ghirlanda and Archisman Ghosh and Bruno Giacomazzo and Fabian Gittins and Ines Francesca Giudice and Boris Goncharov and Alejandra Gonzalez and Stephane Goriely and Luca Graziani and Giuseppe Greco and Leonardo Gualtieri and Gianluca Maria Guidi and Ish Gupta and Maria Haney and Mark Hannam and Jan Harms and Arus Harutyunyan and Brynmor Haskell and Andreas Haungs and Nandini Hazra and Gary Hemming and Ik Siong Heng and Tanja Hinderer and Alexander van der Horst and Qian Hu and Sascha Husa and Francesco Iacovelli and Giulia Illuminati and Gianluca Inguglia and David Izquierdo Villalba and Justin Janquart and Kamiel Janssens and Alexander C. Jenkins and Ian Jones and Balazs Kacskovics and Ralf S. Klessen and Kostas Kokkotas and Hao-Jui Kuan and Sumit Kumar and Sachiko Kuroyanagi and Danny Laghi and Astrid Lamberts and Gaetano Lambiase and Francois Larrouturou and Paola Leaci and Michele Lenzi and Andrew Levan and T. G. F. Li and Yufeng Li and Dicong Liang and Marco Limongi and Boyuan Liu and Felipe J. Llanes-Estrada and Eleonora Loffredo and Oliver Long and Eva Lope-Oter and Georgios Lukes-Gerakopoulos and Elisa Maggio and Michele Maggiore and Michele Mancarella and Michela Mapelli and Pablo Marchant and Annarita Margiotta and Alberto Mariotti and Alisha Marriott-Best and Sylvain Marsat and Gabriel Martinez-Pinedo and Andrea Maselli and Simone Mastrogiovanni and Isabela Matos and Andrea Melandri and Raissa F. P. Mendes and Josiel Mendonca Soares de Souza and Giorgio Mentasti and Mar Mezcua and Philipp Mosta and Chiranjib Mondal and Michele Moresco and Tista Mukherjee and Niccolo Muttoni and Alessandro Nagar and Harsh Narola and Lara Nava and Pablo Navarro Moreno and Gijs Nelemans and Alex B. Nielsen and Samaya Nissanke and Martin Obergaulinger and Micaela Oertel and Gor Oganesyan and Francesca Onori and Costantino Pacilio and Giulia Pagliaroli and Cristiano Palomba and Peter T. H. Pang and Paolo Pani and Lucia Papalini and Barbara Patricelli and Alessandro Patruno and Alessandro Pedrotti and Albino Perego and Maria Angeles Perez-Garcia and Carole Perigois and Gabriele Perna and Celine Peroux and J. Perret and Delphine Perrodin and Alessandro Pesci and Harald P. Pfeiffer and Ornella Juliana Piccinni and Mauro Pieroni and Silvia Piranomonte and Lorenzo Pompili and E. K. Porter and Rafael A. Porto and Adam Pound and Jade Powell and Mathieu Puech and Geraint Pratten and Anna Puecher and Oriol Pujolas and Miguel Quartin and Adriana R. Raduta and Antoni Ramos-Buades and Aaron Rase and Massimiliano Razzano and Nanda Rea and Tania Regimbau and Arianna Renzini and Piero Rettegno and Angelo Ricciardone and Antonio Riotto and Alba Romero-Rodriguez and Samuele Ronchini and Dorota Rosinska and Andrea Rossi and Soumen Roy and Diego Rubiera-Garcia and J. Rubio and Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente and Violetta Sagun and Mairi Sakellariadou and Om Sharan Salafia and Anuradha Samajdar and Nicolas Sanchis-Gual and Andrea Sanna and Filippo Santoliquido and Bangalore Sathyaprakash and Patricia Schmidt and Stefano Schmidt and Fabian R. N. Schneider and Raffaella Schneider and Armen Sedrakian and Geraldine Servant and Alexander Sevrin and Lijing Shao and Hector O. Silva and Peera Simakachorn and Stephen Smartt and Thomas P. Sotiriou and Mario Spera and Antonio Stamerra and Daniele A. Steer and Jan Steinhoff and Nikolaos Stergioulas and Riccardo Sturani and Duvier Suarez and Jishnu Suresh and Shaun Swain and Matteo Tagliazucchi and Nicola Tamanini and Gianmassimo Tasinato and Thomas M. Tauris and Jacopo Tissino and Giovanni Maria Tomaselli and Silvia Toonen and Alejandro Torres-Forne and Cezary Turski and Cristiano Ugolini and Elias C. Vagenas and Lorenzo Valbusa Dall'Armi and Elena Valenti and Rosa Valiante and Chris Van Den Broeck and Maarten van de Meent and Lieke A. C. van Son and Miguel Vanvlasselaer and Massimo Vaglio and Vijay Varma and John Veitch and Ville Vaskonen and Susanna D. Vergani and Milan Wils and Helvi Witek and Isaac C. F. Wong and Stoytcho Yazadjiev and Garvin Yim and Fausto Acernese and Hojae Ahn and Annalisa Allocca and Alex Amato and Marc Andres-Carcasona and Guerino Avallone and Markus Bachlechner and Patrick Baer and Stefano Bagnasco and Gabriele Balbi and Fabrizio Barone and Eugenio Benedetti and Charlotte Benning and Simone Bini and Jose Luis Blazquez Salcedo and Valerio Bozza and Matteo Bruno and Timo Butz and Matteo Califano and Enrico Calloni and Giovanni Carapella and Alessandro Cardini and Shreevathsa Chalathadka Subrahmanya and Francesco Chiadini and Antonino Chiummo and Spina Cianetti and Giacomo Ciani and Eugenio Coccia and Andrea Contu and Robin Cornelissen and Andrea Cozzumbo and Lewis Croney and Mariateresa Crosta and Rocco D'Agostino and Stefan Danilishin and Sabrina D'Antonio and Jorden De Bolle and Jerome Degallaix and Mariafelicia De Laurentis and Riccardo della Monica and Francesco De Marco and Ivan de Martino and Rosario De Rosa and Riccardo De Salvo and Roberta De Simone and Christophe Detavernier and Giovanni Diaferia and Martina Di Cesare and Luciano Di Fiore and Matteo Di Giovanni and Sibilla Di Pace and Jennifer Docherty and Domenico D'Urso and Oussama El Mecherfi and Luciano Errico and Federica Fabrizi and Viviana Fafone and Viviana Fanti and Rosalba Fittipaldi and Vincenzo Fiumara and Andreas Freise and Stefan Funk and Mika Gaedtke and Fabio Garufi and Oliver Gerberding and Edoardo Giangrandi and Carlo Giunchi and Victoria Graham and Massimo Granata and Veronica Granata and Anna Green and Karen Haughian and Lavinia Heisenberg and Margot Hennig and Stefan Hild and Van Long Hoang and Nathan Holland and Gerardo Iannone and Katharina-Sophie Isleif and Robert Joppe and Chang-Hee Kim and Chunglee Kim and Kyungmin Kim and Erika Korb and Mikhail Korobko and Luise Kranzhoff and Tim Kuhlbusch and Gregoire Lacaille and Angelique Lartaux-Vollard and Lia Lavezzi and Paul Laycock and Sumi Lee and Sumin Lee and Sungho Lee and Giovanni Losurdo and Leonardo Lucchesi and Harald Luck and Adrian Macquet and Ettore Majorana and Valentina Mangano and Filippo Martelli and Iain Martin and Mario Martinez and Alberto Masoni and Luca Massaro and Daniele Melini and Amata Mercurio and Lorenzo Mereni and Andrew L. Miller and Lorenzo Mirasola and Alexandra Mitchell and Irene Molinari and Matteo Montani and Conor Mow-Lowry and Riccardo Murgia and Peter Gordon Murray and Giuseppe Muscas and Luca Naticchioni and Ardiana Nela and Marina Nery and Tom Niggemann and Niklas Nippe and Jerome Novak and Armin Numic and Marco Olivieri and Marco Orsini and June Gyu Park and Daniela Pascucci and Antonio Perreca and Francesco Piergiovanni and Vincenzo Pierro and Laurent Pinard and Innocenzo Pinto and Michele Punturo and Paola Puppo and Francesco Quochi and Reinhardt Omondi Rading and Piero Rapagnani and Marco Ricci and Davi Rodrigues and Rocco Romano and Davide Rozza and Pooya Saffarieh and Federica Santucci and Steven Schramm and Benjamin Schwab and Valeria Sequino and Liam Shelling Neto and Laura Silenzi and Alicia M. Sintes and Carlos F. Sopuerta and Andrew Spencer and Achim Stahl and Jessica Steinlechner and Sebastian Steinlechner and Robert Szabo and Thomas Thummler and Emanuele Tofani and Stefano Torniamenti and Riccardo Travaglini and Lucia Trozzo and M. Paola Vaccaro and Michele Valentini and Peter Van and Jesse van Dongen and Joris van Heijningen and Zeb van Ranst and Marco Vardaro and Patrice Verdier and Daniele Vernieri and Nico Wagner and Janis Woehler and Joachim Wolf and Guido Zavattini and Adrian Zink and Andreas Zmija},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.12263},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
899 pages, 205 figures, v2: minor improvements, the version to appear in JCAP