TY - JOUR
T1 - GWTC-4.0
T2 - Updating the Gravitational-wave Transient Catalog with Observations from the First Part of the Fourth LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Observing Run
AU - The LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the Virgo Collaboration, and the KAGRA Collaboration
AU - Abac, A. G.
AU - Abouelfettouh, I.
AU - Acernese, F.
AU - Ackley, K.
AU - Adamcewicz, C.
AU - Adhicary, S.
AU - Adhikari, D.
AU - Adhikari, N.
AU - Adhikari, R. X.
AU - Adkins, V. K.
AU - Afroz, S.
AU - Agapito, A.
AU - Agarwal, D.
AU - Agathos, M.
AU - Aggarwal, N.
AU - Aggarwal, S.
AU - Aguiar, O. D.
AU - Ahrend, I. L.
AU - Aiello, L.
AU - Ain, A.
AU - Ajith, P.
AU - Akcay, S.
AU - Akutsu, T.
AU - Albanesi, S.
AU - Ali, W.
AU - Al-Kershi, S.
AU - Alléné, C.
AU - Allocca, A.
AU - Al-Shammari, S.
AU - Altin, P. A.
AU - Alvarez-Lopez, S.
AU - Amar, W.
AU - Amarasinghe, O.
AU - Amato, A.
AU - Amicucci, F.
AU - Amra, C.
AU - Ananyeva, A.
AU - Anderson, S. B.
AU - Anderson, W. G.
AU - Andia, M.
AU - Ando, M.
AU - Andrés-Carcasona, M.
AU - Andrić, T.
AU - Anglin, J.
AU - Ansoldi, S.
AU - Antelis, J. M.
AU - Antier, S.
AU - Aoumi, M.
AU - Appavuravther, E. Z.
AU - Guetta, D.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2026. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
PY - 2026/6/20
Y1 - 2026/6/20
N2 - Version 4.0 of the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-4.0) adds new candidates detected by the LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA observatories through the first part of the fourth observing run (O4a: 2023 May 24 15:00:00 to 2024 January 16 16:00:00 UTC) and a preceding engineering run. In these new data, we find 128 compact binary coalescence candidates that are identified by at least one of our search algorithms with a probability of astrophysical origin pastro ≥ 0.5 and that are not vetoed during event validation. We also provide detailed source property measurements for 86 of these that have a false-alarm rate <1 yr−1. Based on the inferred component masses, these candidates are consistent with signals from binary black holes (BBHs) and neutron star–black hole binaries (GW230518_125908 and GW230529_181500). Median-inferred component masses of BBHs in the catalog now range from 5.79M⊙ (GW230627_015337) to 137 (Formula presented) M⊙ (GW231123_135430), while GW231123_135430 was probably produced by the most massive binary observed in the catalog. For the first time, we have discovered BBH signals with network signal-to-noise ratio exceeding 30, GW230814_230901 and GW231226_101520, enabling high-fidelity studies of the waveforms and astrophysical properties of these systems. Combined with the 90 candidates included in GWTC-3.0, the catalog now contains 218 candidates with pastro ≥ 0.5 and not otherwise vetoed, more than doubling the size of the catalog and further opening our view of the gravitational-wave Universe.
AB - Version 4.0 of the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-4.0) adds new candidates detected by the LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA observatories through the first part of the fourth observing run (O4a: 2023 May 24 15:00:00 to 2024 January 16 16:00:00 UTC) and a preceding engineering run. In these new data, we find 128 compact binary coalescence candidates that are identified by at least one of our search algorithms with a probability of astrophysical origin pastro ≥ 0.5 and that are not vetoed during event validation. We also provide detailed source property measurements for 86 of these that have a false-alarm rate <1 yr−1. Based on the inferred component masses, these candidates are consistent with signals from binary black holes (BBHs) and neutron star–black hole binaries (GW230518_125908 and GW230529_181500). Median-inferred component masses of BBHs in the catalog now range from 5.79M⊙ (GW230627_015337) to 137 (Formula presented) M⊙ (GW231123_135430), while GW231123_135430 was probably produced by the most massive binary observed in the catalog. For the first time, we have discovered BBH signals with network signal-to-noise ratio exceeding 30, GW230814_230901 and GW231226_101520, enabling high-fidelity studies of the waveforms and astrophysical properties of these systems. Combined with the 90 candidates included in GWTC-3.0, the catalog now contains 218 candidates with pastro ≥ 0.5 and not otherwise vetoed, more than doubling the size of the catalog and further opening our view of the gravitational-wave Universe.
KW - Gravitational wave astronomy (675)
KW - Gravitational wave detectors (676)
KW - Gravitational wave sources (677)
KW - Neutron stars (1108)
KW - Stellar mass black holes (1611)
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105042163262
U2 - 10.3847/2041-8213/ae2c74
DO - 10.3847/2041-8213/ae2c74
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AN - SCOPUS:105042163262
SN - 2041-8205
VL - 1004
JO - Astrophysical Journal Letters
JF - Astrophysical Journal Letters
IS - 2
M1 - L22
ER -