Instrumentation

Phase I of the upgrades to Advanced Virgo+ completed

Ten months after the beginning of the upgrade to Advanced Virgo+, Phase I of the installation is completed. The upgrade includes the new instrumented baffle designed and built at IFAE to control and monitor the stray light inside the experiment.

Virgo highlights the IFAE contribution to Phase I in their last news item published on their web

Instrumented Baffle installation at Virgo

Latest Group News

Gravitational Waves

Spain strengthens its participation in major gravitational-wave infrastructures

December 10, 2025

The Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities has allocated new funding to Spain’s participation in major international gravitational-wave infrastructures, with the Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE) designated as the institution through which these contributions will be channelled.

Results

LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA complete their richest gravitational-wave observation run to date

November 18, 2025

The LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration has announced the completion of O4, the most productive gravitational-wave observation run so far, yielding an unprecedented number of candidate events and high-quality data for the scientific community.

Results

LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA observed 'second generation' black holes for the first time

October 29, 2025

LVK announced the detection of two gravitational-wave signals — designated GW241011 and GW241110 — that indicate the merger of binary black holes exhibiting unusual mass ratios and spin orientations.