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Richard O'Shaughnessy

According to scientists from across the globe—including those working on the project from RIT—this observing run by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration features upgraded instruments, new and even more accurate signal models, and more advanced data analysis methods.

RIT faculty members, who led research initiatives as principal investigators, were honored at a reception on March 21 to celebrate the individuals who helped the university reach record awards surpassing $92 million and place among the top private research universities in the country.

Scientists on the hunt for a previously undetected type of gravitational waves believe they are getting close and have refined techniques to use in upcoming observational runs. Researchers from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration outlined the most sensitive search to date for continuous gravitational waves from a promising source in a paper recently published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Numerous Rochester Institute of Technology faculty, professors emeriti, and postdoctoral researchers were recognized as top-cited scientists in their fields, according to a Stanford University study published by Elsevier.

Richard O’Shaughnessy, an associate professor in RIT’s School of Mathematical Sciences, was awarded a prestigious fellowship to spend the next year preparing for an “onslaught” of gravitational wave discoveries. He is one of 10 faculty worldwide named 2022 Simons Fellows in Theoretical Physics and is the first RIT faculty member to receive the award.

Space.com reports on research led by RIT scientists on a merger of two black holes with eccentric orbits.

For the first time, scientists believe they have detected a merger of two black holes with eccentric orbits. According to a paper published in Nature Astronomy by researchers from RIT and the University of Florida, this can help explain how some of the previous black hole mergers are much heavier than previously thought possible.

The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration unveiled several studies that shed important new light on the nature of gravitational waves. They include a “census” of gravitational wave events to date and a new catalog of results from the second half of its third observing run.

For the first time, scientists detected gravitational waves caused by mergers between black holes and neutron stars. Researchers from RIT’s Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation (CCRG) helped identify key characteristics about the merger events.

Erika Holmbeck, who has been working as a postdoctoral associate with Associate Professor Richard O’Shaughnessy in the Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation since fall 2020, will begin as a Hubble Fellow in fall 2021.

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration released a catalog of results from the first half of its third observing run (O3a), and scientists have detected more than three times as many gravitational waves than the first two runs combined. Several researchers from RIT’s Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation were heavily involved in analyzing the gravitational waves and understanding their significance.

Science News talks to Associate Professor Richard O’Shaughnessy, a member of RIT's Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, about the new observations of gravitational waves.