Parallel sessions

The LIGO Scientific, Virgo and KAGRA (LVK) collaborations recently announced nearly 100 gravitational-wave observations. These observations have allowed us to measure the black hole and neutron star mass and spin distributions, perform precision tests of general relativity, probe the internal structure of neutron stars, make an independent measurement of Hubble's constant and confirm that neutron star mergers power short gamma-ray bursts. The future of gravitational-wave astronomy is exciting:
- In 2022, the network of interferometric detectors will begin operations again, looking back further in cosmic time and seeing many hundreds of events and potentially signals from as-yet undetected sources such as rapidly rotating neutron stars and supernovas.
- Preparations are underway to build the next generations of interferometers on the ground and in space, opening up the milliHertz regime and seeing astrophysical sources up to redshifts of 20.
- Pulsar Timing Arrays are digging deeper into the nanoHertz regime to detect gravitational-wave remnants from past mergers of supermassive black holes.
These sessions aim to provide a platform for UK gravitational-wave astronomers to meet, disseminate their work, and collaborate at the National Astronomy Meeting. We believe that embedding such a meeting in the larger context of UK Astronomy serves to deepen connections between the gravitational wave and astronomical communities. The UK is a leading presence in gravitational-wave astronomy. Over 10 UK Universities have active groups in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the LISA Consortium, the Einstein Telescope Collaboration, and the SKA, while many more participate in gravitational-wave astronomy. Moreover, the UK has researchers who lead work spanning instrumentation, data analysis, astrophysical interpretation, and theoretical modelling. We invite significant scientific updates pertaining to existing data. The latest LVK data was released in November 2021, and the initial findings from the collaborations have already been reported. But, by July 2022, 9 months after the release, we expect independent groups to bring exciting updates on their open data analysis. We also invite updates on the future science of the field. This will span all bands of the gravitational-wave spectrum, and we particularly encourage presentations that describe the future instruments and how the UK is participating.