Gravitational wave astronomy with LIGO and Virgo.

Abstract

With the first direct observation of gravitational waves (GW) on September 14, 2015, the advanced LIGO detectors open new possibilities to explore our Universe. The first LIGO observation run (O1) concluded with the two confirmed BBH detections and started to probe the physics of the most cataclysmic astrophysical events in the Universe – mergers of binary black holes (BBH). In the second observation run (O2) LIGO and Virgo detectors increased the number of BBH detections and discovered the first merger of binary neutron stars starting multi-messenger observations with gravitational waves. Recently LIGO and Virgo concluded their third observation run (O3) with more than 50 reported events which are currently under active investigation. Combined with the other astronomical instruments, these observations enable multi-messenger gravitational wave astronomy dramatically expanding our means to study cosmos. In my talk I will describe LIGO detectors, data analysis methods used to identify gravitational wave events, give overview of the recent public results and discuss prospects of future GW observations.