LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration Meeting was held

The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration, an international joint observation network for gravitational waves, held an international conference (LVK Meeting) at the Toyama International Conference Center in Toyama City for five days from September 11 to 15.

The LVK Meeting has been held twice a year in North America and Europe, and it has been the first time in Japan to be the host of the meeting.

About 370 local researchers (collaborators) from 20 countries and about 560 remote participants have participated. They shared information and engaged in lively discussions on the current status and future of the instruments and research.

Many young collaborators also participated, introducing their latest research by poster presentations and deepening exchanges with researchers from other countries.

Also, the KAGRA site tour was conducted daily during the meeting, and about 280 people participated in the tour. The KAGRA is constructed underground of Kamioka to avoid ground vibrations, unlike LIGO (two locations in the U.S.) and VIRGO (Italy) in Europe, which are above ground, and the mirror at the heart of the device is cooled to cryogenic temperatures to reduce thermal noise.

The LVK collaboration started its fourth joint observing run (O4) on May 25, LIGO is running smoothly, and VIRGO is in the process of making adjustments for its participation in O4; KAGRA completed its four-week observing run (O4a) as scheduled and is now working on improving sensitivity for its rejoining next spring.