The LIGO group at UBC

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Calling all citizen scientists: help LIGO researchers, including Jess McIver and Evan Goetz at UBC, characterize LIGO detector data by classifying noise artifacts, or glitches: gravityspy.org

Did you know? You can download real LIGO and Virgo data from past observing runs. Find data, tutorials, a web course on gravitational wave data analysis, and more at https://www.gw-openscience.org/

35 new gravitational wave observations bring researchers closer to uncovering the secrets of how stars live and dieNovember 8, 2021
A global team of scientists, including researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC), have detected thirty-five new gravitational wave events, including colliding black holes and neutron stars. The new events, detailed in today’s paper, bring the total number of observed events to 90 since the first detection of gravitational waves in 2015. Gravitational waves are tiny ripples in the fabric of… Read more: 35 new gravitational wave observations bring researchers closer to uncovering the secrets of how stars live and die
LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA finds elusive mergers of black holes with neutron starsJune 29, 2021
For the first time, researchers have confirmed the detection of a collision between a black hole and a neutron star. In fact, the scientists – including those at the University of British Columbia – detected not one but two such events occurring just ten days apart in January 2020. The extreme events made splashes in space that sent gravitational waves rippling… Read more: LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA finds elusive mergers of black holes with neutron stars
UBC LIGO researchers receive federal funding to support breakthrough & interdisciplinary researchMay 31, 2021
UBC Physics & Astronomy researchers, including UBC LIGO team members Jess McIver, Joerg Rottler, and Jeff Young, have been awarded the federal New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) 2020 Exploration Stream. This funding, each in the amount of $250K, will support high-risk, high-reward and interdisciplinary research. The two UBC LIGO projects are among the 7 projects awarded at UBC, and 117… Read more: UBC LIGO researchers receive federal funding to support breakthrough & interdisciplinary research
Scientists detect 39 new gravitational wave eventsOctober 29, 2020
(via UBC News) The LIGO-Virgo Collaboration, including UBC Department of Physics & Astronomy researchers, has confirmed 39 new gravitational wave event detections, more than quadrupling the total known gravitational wave events from 11 to 50. The results, published in four papers on arXiv, and soon to appear in Physical Review X and other journals, were collected from the first half of… Read more: Scientists detect 39 new gravitational wave events
The most massive black hole merger detectedSeptember 3, 2020
An international team of researchers, including scientists in the UBC LIGO group, has detected a signal from the most massive black hole merger yet observed. The discovery, outlined in papers published today in Physical Review Letters and The Astrophysical Journal, raises a slew of new questions about the nature of black-hole formation, and upends previously held theories about how big holes… Read more: The most massive black hole merger detected
Discovery of the heaviest neutron star, or lightest black hole, ever observedJune 25, 2020
An international team of astrophysicists, including researchers at UBC, have detected the ‘extremely loud’ merger of a black hole with a mystery compact object—the most asymmetric gravitational-wave source yet observed. GW190814, the merger of a heavy black hole with an unidentified compact object about nine times smaller, was reported today in Astrophysical Journal Letters. When stars die, they can collapse into… Read more: Discovery of the heaviest neutron star, or lightest black hole, ever observed
UBC researchers visit LIGO LivingstonMay 14, 2020
UBC researchers Jess McIver, Evan Goetz, and student Katie Rink visited the LIGO-Livingston detector in Livingston, Louisiana for the LIGO Detector Characterization meeting and noise sprint in January 2020.
Glimpsing harmonics in gravitational wavesApril 27, 2020
Astrophysicists, including a team at UBC, have observed gravitational waves from the collision of two black holes with distinctly different masses, dubbed GW190412. This discovery gives us a glimpse of subtle harmonics in gravitational wave signals for the first time. These harmonics not only allow improved tests of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, they also allow researchers to better resolve how… Read more: Glimpsing harmonics in gravitational waves
GW190425: detecting the second merger of two neutron starsFebruary 6, 2020
Artist’s impression of the binary neutron star merger observed by LIGO Livingston on April 25, 2019. Image credit: National Science Foundation/LIGO/Sonoma State University/A. Simonnet.
UBC is now part of the LIGO collaborationMarch 4, 2013
The UBC LIGO group spans the Faculties of Engineering and Science, with faculty, researcher, and student members from the Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering, and Physics and Astronomy departments.

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