J. Heefner

TL;DR: This is the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger, and these observations demonstrate the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review the performance of the LIGO instruments during this epoch, the work done to characterize the detectors and their data, and the effect that transient and continuous noise artefacts have on the sensitivity of the detectors to a variety of astrophysical sources.

TL;DR: In this paper, Kalogera et al. presented an up-to-date summary of the rates for all types of compact binary coalescence sources detectable by the initial and advanced versions of the ground-based gravitational-wave detectors LIGO and Virgo.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an up-to-date summary of the rates for all types of compact binary coalescence sources detectable by the Initial and Advanced versions of the ground-based LIGO and Virgo Astrophysical estimates for compact-binary coalescence rates depend on a number of assumptions and unknown model parameters.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors demonstrate the squeezed-light enhancement of GEO600, which will be the GW observatory operated by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration in its search for GWs for the next 3-4 years.