GWTC-4.0: An Introduction to Version 4.0 of the Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog

Document #:

LIGO-P2400293-v11

Document type:

P - Publications

Abstract:

The Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC) is a collection of short-duration (transient) gravitational wave signals identified by the LIGO Virgo KAGRA Collaboration in gravitational-wave data produced by the eponymous detectors. The catalog provides information about the identified candidates, such as the arrival time and amplitude of the signal and properties of the signal's source as inferred from the observational data. GWTC is the data release of this dataset and version 4.0 extends the catalog to include observations made during the first part of the fourth LIGO Virgo KAGRA observing run up until 2024 January 31. This paper marks an introduction to a collection of articles related to this version of the catalog, GWTC-4.0. The collection of articles accompanying the catalog provides documentation of the methods used to analyze the data, summaries of the catalog of events, observational measurements drawn from the population, and detailed discussions of selected candidates.

Files in Document:

• GWTC-4.0_introduction_v11.pdf (3.8 MB)

Topics:

• Compact Binaries

Author Groups:

• LVK

Keywords:

cbc gwtc

Notes and Changes:

Version submitted to the arXiv on 25/08/2025.

Related Documents:

• LIGO-P2500167: Open Data from LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA through the First Part of the Fourth Observing Run
• LIGO-P2400300: GWTC-4: Methods for identifying and characterizing gravitational-wave transients

Referenced by:

• LIGO-P2400300-v11: GWTC-4: Methods for identifying and characterizing gravitational-wave transients

Publication Information:

Available on arXiv at https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18080