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The recent Nobel-prize-winning detections of gravitational waves from merging black holes and the subsequent detection of the collision of two neutron stars in coincidence with electromagnetic observations have inaugurated a new era of…
We propose a space-based interferometer surveying the gravitational wave (GW) sky in the milli-Hz to $\mu$-Hz frequency range. By the 2040s', the $\mu$-Hz frequency band, bracketed in between the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA)…
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) is one of a new generation of detectors of gravitational radiation. The existence of gravitational radiation was first predicted by Einstein in 1916, however gravitational waves…
In 2009-2010, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observa- tory (LIGO) operated together with international partners Virgo and GEO600 as a network to search for gravitational waves of astrophysical origin. The sensitiv- ity of these…
The first direct measurement of gravitational waves by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations has opened up new avenues to explore our Universe. This white paper outlines the challenges and gains expected in gravitational-wave searches at…
As the ground-based gravitational-wave telescopes LIGO, Virgo, and GEO 600 approach the era of first detections, we review the current knowledge of the coalescence rates and the mass and spin distributions of merging neutron-star and…
The Advanced LIGO/Virgo interferometers have observed $\sim 100$ gravitational-wave transients enabling new questions to be answered about relativity, astrophysics, and cosmology. However, many of our current procedures for computing these…
Direct and unequivocal detection of gravitational waves represents a great challenge of contemporary physics and astrophysics. A worldwide effort is currently operating towards this direction, building ever sensitive detectors, improving…
On September 14, 2015, the newly upgraded Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) recorded a loud gravitational-wave (GW) signal, emitted a billion light-years away by a coalescing binary of two stellar-mass black holes.…
LIGO --- The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory --- is one of several large projects being undertaken in the United States, Europe and Japan to detect gravitational radiation. The novelty and precision of these instruments…
Nearly a century after Einstein first predicted the existence of gravitational waves, a global network of earth-based gravitational wave observatories is seeking to directly detect this faint radiation using precision laser interferometry.…
Gravitational wave astronomy opened dramatically in September 2015 with the LIGO discovery of a distant and massive binary black hole coalescence. The more recent discovery of a binary neutron star merger, followed by a gamma ray burst and…
Gravitational wave (GW) experiments have transformed our understanding of the Universe by enabling direct observations of compact object mergers and other astrophysical phenomena. This chapter reviews the concepts of GW detectors, such as…
The LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations have announced the first detection of gravitational waves from the coalescence of two neutron stars. The merger rate of binary neutron stars estimated from this event suggests that distant,…
We show how LIGO is expected to detect coalescing binary black holes at $z>1$, that are lensed by the intervening galaxy population. Gravitational magnification, $\mu$, strengthens gravitational wave signals by $\sqrt{\mu}$, without…
The first detection of gravitational waves by LIGO from the merger of two compact objects has sparked new interest in detecting electromagnetic counterparts to these violent events. For mergers involving neutron stars, it is thought that…
The inspirals and mergers of compact binaries are among the most promising events for ground-based gravitational-wave (GW) observatories. The detection of electromagnetic (EM) signals from these sources would provide complementary…
The past four years have seen a scientific revolution through the birth of a new field: gravitational-wave astronomy. The first detection of gravitational waves---recognised by the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics---provided unprecedented tests…
Gravitational waves from binary black hole and neutron star mergers are being regularly detected. As of 2021, ninety confident gravitational wave detections have been made by the LIGO and Virgo detectors. Work is ongoing to further increase…
The recent Advanced LIGO detection of gravitational waves from the binary black hole GW150914 suggests there exists a large population of merging binary black holes in the Universe. Although most are too distant to be individually resolved…