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LIGO, VIRGO, and KAGRA as the International Gravitational Wave Network

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Handbook of Gravitational Wave Astronomy

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Abstract

The first detection of gravitational waves was made by the two LIGO detectors in the United States one hundred years after general relativity was first described by Einstein. Two years later, Virgo joined LIGO in the second advanced gravitational-wave detector observing run. As of May 2021, 50 gravitational-wave events from mergers of binary black-holes or neutron stars have been published by the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration. KAGRA in Japan is part of this international gravitational wave network since April 2020, and joint observations are anticipated in the next observing run. We briefly introduce the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA detectors and the remarkable results of gravitational-wave observations up to now. The other articles in this handbook provide a comprehensive overview of the subject at this time.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Center for Gravitation, Cosmology, and Astrophysics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Patrick Brady

  2. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Giovanni Losurdo

  3. Osaka Institute of Technology, Hirakata City, Osaka, Japan

    Hisaaki Shinkai

Authors
  1. Patrick Brady
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  2. Giovanni Losurdo
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  3. Hisaaki Shinkai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patrick Brady .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Cosimo Bambi

  2. Université de Paris and European Gravitational Observatory, Paris, France

    Stavros Katsanevas

  3. Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics Eberhard Karls, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Konstantinos D. Kokkotas

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© 2022 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

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Brady, P., Losurdo, G., Shinkai, H. (2022). LIGO, VIRGO, and KAGRA as the International Gravitational Wave Network. In: Bambi, C., Katsanevas, S., Kokkotas, K.D. (eds) Handbook of Gravitational Wave Astronomy. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4306-4_51

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