GWTC-4.0: Methods for Identifying and Characterizing Gravitational-wave Transients

Authors

• A. G. Abac
• I. Abouelfettouh
• Teviet Creighton, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
• Mario C. Diaz, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
• Raul Alberto Espinosa Perez, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
• J. Lawrence, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
• Francisco Llamas Villarreal, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
• Soma Mukherjee, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
• Volker Quetschke, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
• Wenhui Wang, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-18-2026

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.

Comments

Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

Recommended Citation

Abac, A. G., I. Abouelfettouh, F. Acernese, et al. “GWTC-4.0: Methods for Identifying and Characterizing Gravitational-Wave Transients.” The Astrophysical Journal Letters 1004, no. 2 (2026): L21. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae447b.

Publication Title

The Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI

10.3847/2041-8213/ae447b