GWTC-4.0: Methods for identifying and characterizing gravitational-wave transients

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Armstrong, Steven and Ben Yaala, Marwa and Fazio, Mariana and Gier, Chalisa, The LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the Virgo Collaboration, and the KAGRA Collaboration (2026) GWTC-4.0: Methods for identifying and characterizing gravitational-wave transients. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 1004 (2). L21. ISSN 2041-8213 (https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae447b)

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Abstract

The Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC) is a collection of candidate gravitational-wave transient signals identified and characterized by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Collaboration. Producing the contents of the GWTC from detector data requires complex analysis methods. These comprise techniques to model the signal; identify the transients in the data; evaluate the quality of the data and mitigate possible instrumental issues; infer the parameters of each transient; compare the data with the waveform models for compact binary coalescences; and handle the large amount of results associated with all of these different analyses. In this paper, we describe the methods employed to produce the catalog’s fourth release, GWTC-4.0, focusing on the analysis of the first part of the fourth observing run of Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA.

ORCID iDs

Armstrong, Steven, Ben Yaala, Marwa ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6754-0875, Fazio, Mariana ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9057-9663 and Gier, Chalisa ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0897-7943;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)