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Gravitational Waves Became a Population, Not a Rarity
The newest O4 catalogues each add roughly one hundred detections, shifting inference toward subpopulations and cosmic history.
Summary
The newest O4 catalogues each add roughly one hundred detections, shifting inference toward subpopulations and cosmic history.
A review of the fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run describes a field moving from exceptional single events to catalog-scale inference. Recent catalogues each contain about one hundred new detections, including unusually loud signals and sources unlike earlier examples. The larger samples support evidence for multiple compact-binary subpopulations and tighter work on stellar evolution, gravity and the Universe's expansion. The final O4 catalogue is due in December 2026, so this paper synthesizes published run results rather than announcing that final release.
Why it matters
The newest O4 catalogues each add roughly one hundred detections, shifting inference toward subpopulations and cosmic history.
Limits and context
No additional limitation was separately recorded.
Key claims
The newest O4 catalogues each add roughly one hundred detections, shifting inference toward subpopulations and cosmic history.
Evidence: source-2026-09-05-014
Sources
- arXiv preprint 2609.03859arXiv · primary research
Corrections
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