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The LIGO/Virgo Scientific Collaboration recently announced the detection of a compact object binary merger, GW190412, as the first asymmetric binary black hole (BBH) merger with mass ratio $q\approx0.25$. Other than the mass ratio, this BBH…
We introduce a new technique to search for gravitational wave events from compact binary mergers that produce a clear signal only in a single gravitational wave detector, and marginal signals in other detectors. Such a situation can arise…
The Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors have now observed approximately 50 black-hole-binary mergers, from which we can begin to infer how rapidly astrophysical black holes spin. The LIGO-Virgo Collaboration (LVC) analysis of detections up to…
The spin-orbit tilt angles $\theta_{1(2)}$ of merging stellar-mass black holes provide key insights into their astrophysical origin. Non-parametric population modelling of The LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations (2025a, arXiv:2508.18083)…
We infer recoil (kick) velocities for all binary black hole merger events reported up to the GWTC--4 catalog, together with candidate intermediate-mass black hole events. We obtain informative kick constraints for GW231028\_153006…
While the Advanced LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave experiments now regularly observe binary black hole mergers, the evolutionary origin of these events remains a mystery. Analysis of the binary black hole spin distribution may shed light…
Although gravitational-wave signals from exceptional low-mass compact binary coalescences, like GW170817, may carry matter signatures that differentiate the source from a binary black hole system, only one out of every eight events detected…
Dense astrophysical environments like globular clusters and galactic nuclei can host hyperbolic encounters of black holes which can lead to gravitational-wave driven capture. There are several astrophysical models which predict a fraction…
The discovery of the gravitational-wave source GW150914 with the Advanced LIGO detectors provides the first observational evidence for the existence of binary black-hole systems that inspiral and merge within the age of the Universe. Such…
The identification of the first confirmed neutron star - black hole (NS-BH) binary mergers by the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA collaboration provides the opportunity to investigate the properties of the early sample of confirmed and candidate…
One of the puzzles in the recent observations of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers is the observed low (projected) spins of the progenitor black holes. In two of the four events, GW150914, and the recent GW170104, the…
While the origin of merging black-hole binaries observed in gravitational waves remain uncertain, different formation channels are expected to leave distinct imprints on their observed mass and spin distributions. In this work, we focus on…
The gravitational-wave event GW231123_135430 is the heaviest binary black hole system observed by the LIGO--Virgo--KAGRA Collaboration to date, with the initial analysis indicating the individual black hole masses lie within or above the…
With the discovery of the binary black hole coalescence GW150914, the era of gravitational-wave astrophysics has started. Gravitational-wave signals emitted by compact binary coalescences will be detected in large number by LIGO and Virgo…
We present a detailed investigation into the properties of GW170729, the gravitational wave with the most massive and distant source confirmed to date. We employ an extensive set of waveform models, including new improved models that…
The recent detection of GW230529 suggests that black hole-neutron star mergers may involve low-mass black holes, potentially producing detectable electromagnetic counterparts. Motivated by this, we perform eleven fully general-relativistic…
The LIGO-Virgo collaboration recently reported the properties of GW190412, a binary black hole merger with unequal component masses (mass ratio $0.25^{+0.06}_{-0.04}$ when using the EOBNR PHM approximant) and a non-vanishing effective spin…
The LIGO--Virgo--KAGRA collaborations (LVK) produced a catalogue containing gravitational-wave (GW) observations from the first half of the third GW observing run (O3a). This catalogue, GWTC-2.1, includes for the first time a number of…
GW231123 represents the most massive binary-black-hole merger detected to date, lying firmly within, or even above, the pair-instability mass gap. The component spins are both exceptionally high ($a_1 = 0.90^{+0.10}_{-0.19}$, $a_2 =…
In gravitational-wave astronomy, as in other scientific disciplines, ``exceptional'' sources attract considerable interest because they challenge our current understanding of the underlying (astro)physical processes. Crucially,…