Joe Giaime
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Joe Giaime
@giaime.net
170 followers 120 following 33 posts
Professor, Physics and Astronomy (LSU), LIGO Livingston observatory head (Caltech). Content here is my personal take, not representing my organizations.
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
ligo.org
2015 was a good year for gravitational-wave astronomy

🔭🧪🛰️ #LPF10anniversary #GW10Years
lisacommunity.bsky.social LISA Community @lisacommunity.bsky.social · 27d
Relive the Moment: LISA Pathfinder has launched! 🚀🛰️
At 04:04UTC on the 3rd December, LISA Pathfinder successfully launched on top of a VEGA launcher.
The rockets first three stages burned for ~7minutes, followed by a nine minute burn for the rockets upper stage.

www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
LISA Pathfinder launch - Part 1
www.esa.int
December 4, 2025 at 10:06 AM
giaime.net
A coda to Les Guthman's video series about Advanced LIGO, adding an homage to LIGO founder Rainer Weiss.
lesguthman.bsky.social Les Guthman @lesguthman.bsky.social · Nov 20
Sad but pleased to release today our homage to LIGO’s wonderful Rai Weiss, who passed away in September just shy of his 93rd birthday. It is Episode 10 of our 9-year @LIGO.org YouTube video series. In our last interview, he insisted that NSF “is the hero of LIGO.” youtu.be/hsiyG6Y0t4M
EPISODE10 - "RAI WEISS: LIGO'S HEART AND SOUL
YouTube video by Advanced LIGO Documentary Project
youtu.be
November 20, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Joe Giaime
ligo.org
Our Rapid Response Teams celebrate the end of our fourth observing run. Well done everyone!

www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo202...

O4 was a success thanks to lots of hard work from across the world.

🔭⚛️🧪
In Japan, KAGRA staff gathered in the control room to celebrate the end of O4. This was the first run that KAGRA took science data simultaneously with Virgo and LIGO. Staff at LIGO Livingston Observatory in Louisiana gathered in the control room to say farewell to O4 In Italy, Virgo staff gathered in the control room to celebrate the end of O4. Staff at LIGO Hanford Observatory in Washington State gathered in the control room at 8am to celebrate the end of O4. Everyone enjoyed morning coffee and cake.
November 19, 2025 at 12:19 PM
giaime.net
and here's how the O4 end of run looked at Virgo!
egovirgo.bsky.social EGO and the Virgo Collaboration @egovirgo.bsky.social · Nov 18
Today marks the end of the fourth observing run of the @LIGO - Virgo - @KAGRA_PR gravitational wave detection network 🎆 It was the longest and richest run ever: 585 days and 250+ significant candidate signals, a huge increase from the 90 events of the three past runs combined🤯
November 18, 2025 at 5:18 PM
giaime.net
This morning marked the end of the fourth LIGO - Virgo - KAGRA observational run's third segment, O4c. Here's how it looked in LIGO Livingston's control room.
A group of smiling people—scientists, engineers, detector operators and other observatory specialists—post in LIGO Livingston's control room. Video displays on the wall and workstations show various real-time data relevant to the run. Also visible are three clocks: GPS seconds, UTC and local (CDT).
November 18, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Reposted by Joe Giaime
ligo.org
We are pleased to announce our discovery of #GW241011 and #GW241110

Both come from binary black holes where one black hole is much larger than the other. The larger black holes have large spin. Could these black holes have formed in a previous merger?

ligo.org/science-summ...

#O4IsHere 🔭🧪⚛️☄️
Infographic about GW241011 and GW241110 GW241011's source contained black holes about 13 and 8 times the mass of our Sun. The spin of the bigger black hole is high and bear aligned with the orbit. GW241110's source contained black holes about 17 and 8 times the mass of our Sun. The spin of the larger black hole is high and near anti-aligned with the orbit. Credit: Shanika Galaudage/Northwestern University/Adler Planetarium
October 29, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Reposted by Joe Giaime
caltech.edu
A pair of distant black hole mergers, measured just one month apart in late 2024, are improving how scientists understand the nature and evolution of the most violent deep-space collisions in our universe.

www.caltech.edu/about/news/c...
Colliding black holes might have formed from earlier cosmic smashups
Two recent detections have given the international LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration new insights into black hole formation and evolution
www.caltech.edu
October 28, 2025 at 6:17 PM
giaime.net
Thanks to jorgepullin.bsky.social, proof that LIGO Livingston's guardian alligator is on duty.
a modest-sized alligator suns itself near a green body of water. This is nothing to worry about.
October 19, 2025 at 6:23 PM
giaime.net
New Editorial in The Advocate | Times-Picayune about LIGO: www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/...
Editorial: Cuts threaten to dim future of LIGO, which has helped La. reach for the stars
Trying to figure out the nature of the universe and our place in it has been a quest of humankind since the beginning of time. That these powerful tools exist today in Louisiana should be a source of ...
www.theadvocate.com
September 18, 2025 at 5:03 PM
giaime.net
A nice piece by Liam Combs on WAFB TV about LIGO’s discovery anniversary. #GW10Years. www.wafb.com/2025/09/15/f...
Federal cuts threaten research at observatory, a decade after historic discovery
President Trump’s federal budget proposal includes a 40% budget cut for LIGO
www.wafb.com
September 17, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Reposted by Joe Giaime
ligo.org
During the recent LIGO @egovirgo.bsky.social KAGRA meeting, the 2024 winner of the LIGO Laboratory Award for Excellence in Detector Characterization and Calibration, Louis Dartez, received his honorary Calibration Wizard hat.

Congratulations to Dr. Dartez!

www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/award-e...
Louis Dartez receiving his LIGO Calibration Wizard hat at the September 2025 LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA meeting from Jess McIver. The hat is a traditional pointy blue hat, but is covered with images of lasers.
September 16, 2025 at 2:16 PM
giaime.net
@clargrune.bsky.social of The Advocate covered the 10th anniversary of our GW detection. www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/...
Amid concerns over potential cuts, Livingston's LIGO scientists mark 10th anniversary of monumental discovery BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD | Staff writer Sep 14, 2025 A signal lasting less than a second traveled about 1.3 billion light years before it reached an obser vatory deep in the piney woods of Livingston 10 years ago. The brief signal — caused by a pair of black holes colliding - the first gravitational waves ever detected, and it created a new way for scientists to look into the uni-verse. The Sept. 14, 2015, detection con-tirmed a key prediction of Albert Einstein's general theory of rela-tivity, earned the Nobel Prize in physics and kick-started a new era of astronomy. "Most of us had figured that with nature being perverse, that the first signal would be really hard to pull out of the noise. And then the signal came beautifully, beautifully clear," said Joseph Giaime, head of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in Livingston.
September 15, 2025 at 6:13 PM
giaime.net
Gabriela González's keynote slides and voice from LLO's Sept 14 anniversary event are up, thanks to Jorge Pullin! #GW10Years
September 15, 2025 at 2:21 PM
giaime.net
#GW10Years
giaime.net Joe Giaime @giaime.net · Sep 13
Gabriela González gives the keynote at LIGO Livingston’s celebration of the 10th anniversary of our detection of gravitational waves.
September 13, 2025 at 6:13 PM
giaime.net
Gabriela González gives the keynote at LIGO Livingston’s celebration of the 10th anniversary of our detection of gravitational waves.
September 13, 2025 at 3:47 PM
giaime.net
I just spend time on the Talk Louisiana radio show, interviewed by the famously knowledgeable La. journalist, Jim Engster: www.wrkf.org/show/talk-lo...
Joseph Giaime, James Carville
LSU physics professor and observatory head of LIGO Livingston Joseph Giaime talks the 10 year anniversary of the discovery of LIGO and the significant advances throughout the years. Longtime politico ...
www.wrkf.org
September 12, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by Joe Giaime
arstechnica.com
New black hole merger bolsters Hawking area theorem
Physicists spliced merger’s gravitational signal into isolated frequencies to determine surface areas.
arstechnica.com
September 11, 2025 at 6:41 PM
giaime.net
Strongest black hole collision yet confirms theories of Einstein, Hawking | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
Strongest black hole collision yet confirms theories of Einstein, Hawking
Observation confirms that a black hole’s area can only grow and never shrink
www.science.org
September 11, 2025 at 6:21 PM
giaime.net
Press release and resources about the ten years of LIGO observation since our first discovery: www.ligo.caltech.edu/LA/news/ligo...
Ten Years Later, LIGO is a Black-Hole Hunting Machine
LIGO and its partners celebrate anniversary, announce verification of Stephen Hawking's Black Hole Area Theorem
www.ligo.caltech.edu
September 10, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Reposted by Joe Giaime
ligo.org
What a difference a decade makes! Announcing the clearest #GravitationalWave detection ever #GW250114

youtu.be/2XmZ8-XQ9jU

📓: doi.org/10.1103/kw5g...

🔭🧪⚛️☄️ #O4IsHere
GW250114 – The Clearest of Chirps
YouTube video by LIGO Virgo KAGRA
youtu.be
September 10, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Joe Giaime
ligo.org
The loudest #GravitationalWave in #GWTC4 is #GW230814

Detected with only Livingston, it was still about twice as loud as GW150914!

Being loud should enable precision tests of general relativity, but with only one detector, you need to be careful with the analysis

ligo.org/science-summ...

🔭⚛️☄️🧪
The gravitational-wave signal GW230814. The top panel shows the time-frequency representation of the signal where brighter regions indicate larger amplitude. The CWT acronym points to the method used to construct this time-frequency representation, based on the Continuous Wavelet Transform. The bottom panel shows the signal represented as a time series. The blue and purple lines show two different methods of reconstruction for the signal waveform. It is clear that the signal is a compact binary coalescence and the data are in good agreement with the reconstructions until the ringdown part. Being such a loud signal allows us to make this wonderfully precise reconstruction!
September 10, 2025 at 12:45 AM
giaime.net
Article by Alfredo Carpineti on gravitational wave detection on its 10th anniversary: www.iflscience.com/the-unfoldin...
The Unfolding New Astronomical Revolution – Gravitational Waves Discovery Turns 10
In just a decade, the field has dramatically changed. The best is yet to come.
www.iflscience.com
September 8, 2025 at 6:10 PM
giaime.net
Rainer Weiss, physicist, teacher, mentor, and LIGO founder, passed away Aug 25, 2025. physics.mit.edu/news/profess...
Professor Emeritus Rainer Weiss, influential physicist who forged new paths to understanding the universe, dies at 92
MIT Professor Emeritus Rainer Weiss ’55, PhD ’62, a renowned experimental physicist and Nobel laureate whose groundbreaking work confirmed a longstanding prediction about the nature of the universe, p...
physics.mit.edu
August 27, 2025 at 7:11 PM
giaime.net
This preview thumbnail hints at all the work that went into taking and calibrating the data being released.
astroarxiv.bsky.social AstroArxiv @astroarxiv.bsky.social · Aug 26
Open Data from LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA through the First Part of the Fourth Observing Run. The LIGO Scientific Collaboration et. al. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18079
Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4
August 26, 2025 at 11:54 AM
giaime.net
Nice preview of a few paper figures. These big full-collaboration papers are an immense amount of work for which we are all grateful.
astroarxiv.bsky.social AstroArxiv @astroarxiv.bsky.social · Aug 26
GWTC-4.0: An Introduction to Version 4.0 of the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog. The LIGO Scientific Collaboration et. al. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18080
Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4
August 26, 2025 at 11:52 AM