LIGO, VIRGO AND KAGRA OBSERVING RUN PLANS

[15 March 2022 update; next update by 15 May 2022]

LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA are closely coordinating to start the O4 Observing run together. We plan to start the O4 Observing run in mid-December 2022, though we are still working through delays resulting from the pandemic. An Engineering Run is planned to start in mid-November; low-latency alerts for candidate events identified during engineering time may be released, both to exercise the system and to preserve the scientific value. We are planning a webinar for late April to update the community about the status of work on the detectors and to discuss the remaining challenges in our current schedule.

LIGO projects a sensitivity goal of 160-190 Mpc for binary neutron stars. Virgo projects a target sensitivity of 80-115 Mpc. KAGRA should be running with greater than 1 Mpc sensitivity at the beginning of O4, and will work to improve the sensitivity toward the end of O4.

The most recent updates are always available at https://www.ligo.org/scientists/GWEMalerts.php

If you have any questions, please contact the Spokespersons:

• Patrick Brady (Spokesperson, LIGO Scientific Collaboration)
      lsc-spokesperson_AT_ligo/org
• Giovanni Losurdo (Spokesperson, Virgo Collaboration)
      virgo-spokesperson_AT_ego-gw/it
• Jun’ichi Yokoyama (Board Chair, KAGRA Scientific Congress)
      kscboard-chair_AT_icrr/u-tokyo/ac/jp

(Please replace “_AT_” into “@” and replace “/” into “.” after it.)