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Published November 4, 2025 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Compact binary coalescence sensitivity estimates with injection campaigns during the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaborations' fourth observing run

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics
  • 2. ROR icon University of Toronto
  • 3. ROR icon University of Minnesota
  • 4. ROR icon Adler Planetarium
  • 5. ROR icon Northwestern University
  • 6. ROR icon Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 7. ROR icon Monash University
  • 8. ROR icon University of Glasgow
  • 9. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 10. ROR icon University of Manitoba
  • 11. ROR icon Winnipeg Institute for Theoretical Physics
  • 12. ROR icon University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
  • 13. ROR icon University of Portsmouth
  • 14. ROR icon University of Santiago de Compostela
  • 15. ROR icon Pennsylvania State University
  • 16. ROR icon Georgia Institute of Technology
  • 17. ROR icon University of Florida
  • 18. ROR icon University of Birmingham
  • 19. ROR icon Sapienza University of Rome
  • 20. ROR icon University of Liège
  • 21. ROR icon University of Maryland, College Park
  • 22. ROR icon University of Chicago

Abstract

We describe the effort to characterize gravitational-wave searches and detector sensitivity to different types of compact binary coalescences during the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaborations’ fourth observing run. We discuss the design requirements and example use cases for this data product, constructed from > 4.33 ×10⁸ injections during O4a alone. We also identify subtle effects with high confidence, like diurnal duty cycles within detectors. This paper accompanies a public data release of the curated injection set, and the Appendixes give detailed examples of how to use the publicly available data.

Copyright and License

© 2025 American Physical Society.

Acknowledgement

R. E. and U. M. are supported by the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through a Discovery Grant (No. RGPIN-2023-03346). M. W. C. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation with Grant No. PHY-2308862 and No. PHY-2117997. M. Z. gratefully acknowledges funding from the Brinson Foundation in support of astrophysics research at the Adler Planetarium. D. C. acknowledges support from NSF PHY-2117997. T. A. C. receives support from the Australian Government Research Training Program. S. C. is supported by Science and Technology Facilities Council studentship 2748218. S. J. M. is supported by NSF Grants No. PHY-2308770 and No. PHY-2409001. N. S. acknowledges support from NSERC through the Discovery Grants Program and from the NSERC Canada Research Chairs programs. A. C. B. is funded by NSF Grant PHY-2207728. P. B. is funded by NSF Grant No. PHY-2207728. P. J. acknowledges support from NSF OAC-2103662. C. M. acknowledges support from NSF Grant No. PHY-2207728. G. C. D. acknowledges the Science and Technology Funding Council (STFC) for funding through Grant No. ST/V005715/1. K. S. P. acknowledges support from the Science and Technology Funding Council (STFC) Grant No. ST/V005677/1. M. P. acknowledges support from FNRS and IISN 4.4503. M. T. acknowledges support from the U.S. National Science Foundation through Grant No. PHY-2409448. The authors thank Geraint Pratten for his helpful review. The authors are also grateful for computational resources provided by the LIGO Laboratory and supported by National Science Foundation Grants PHY-0757058 and PHY-0823459. This material is based upon work supported by NSF’s LIGO Laboratory which is a major facility fully funded by the National Science Foundation.

Additional Information

R. Essick authored the software used to generate the injections [55–57], developed the injected distribution, oversaw the creation of all O4 injections and personally generated all O4a and O4c injections. He also curated the search results, including preparing LVK’s public data releases [10,11]. R. E. wrote the text of the paper, constructed all figures, and performed all calculations within the manuscript. He developed the one-stop-shop summary of useful calculations presented in Appendix C based on internal LVK technical notes he authored with T. A. C. and M. F. M. W. C., M. Z., and D. C. reviewed the injection software and methodology within the LVK. M. W. C. and M. Z. additionally reviewed the public data release. T. A. C., S. C., U. M., S. M., and N. S. generated injections for O4b in consulation with R. E. The following authors processed O4a injections with production searches. T. M. provided results for cwb. P. B., A. C. B., P. J., and C. M. provided results for gstlal. A. O. provided results for mbta. G. C. D., T. D., P. K., K. S. P., L. P., M. P., and M. T. provided results for pycbc.

Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this article are openly available [10,11].

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Additional details

Related works

Is new version of
Discussion Paper: arXiv:2508.10638 (arXiv)
Is supplemented by
Dataset: 10.5281/zenodo.16740117 (DOI)
Dataset: 10.5281/zenodo.16740128 (DOI)

Funding

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
RGPIN-2023-03346
National Science Foundation
PHY-2308862
National Science Foundation
PHY-2117997
Brinson Foundation
Australian Government
Science and Technology Facilities Council
2748218
National Science Foundation
PHY-2308770
National Science Foundation
PHY-2409001
Canada Research Chairs
National Science Foundation
PHY-2207728
National Science Foundation
OAC-2103662
Science and Technology Facilities Council
ST/V005715/1
Science and Technology Facilities Council
ST/V005677/1
Fund for Scientific Research
IISN 4.4503
National Science Foundation
PHY-2409448
National Science Foundation
PHY-0757058
National Science Foundation
PHY-0823459

Dates

Accepted
2025-09-22

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
LIGO , Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA)
Publication Status
Published