LISA Community

@lisacommunity.bsky.social

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First gravitational wave observatory in space. 3 satellites flying in triangle formation connected by 2.5 million km laser beams. An ESA mission with international participation including from NASA. Launch in the 2030s.

The text on the graphic is: "Even a small number of LISA detections would imply a much larger unseen population at the Galactic centre. Together with radio surveys, this complementary view promises to help resolve one of the most intriguing mysteries in high-energy astrophysics."
The text on the graphic is: "By listening to gravitational waves, LISA can detect ultra-compact millisecond-pulsar binaries in the inner Milky Way - systems that are invisible to traditional telescopes." There is also a plot of companion mass against gravitational-wave frequency.
The text on the graphic is: "Our study shows how LISA can offer a new and independent way to test the millisecond-pulsar hypothesis." There is also a plot from the paper showing orbital period against companion mass.
The text on the graphic is: "For over a decade, astronomers have debated whether this signal comes from annihilating dark matter or from a hidden population of rapidly spinning neutron stars known as millisecond pulsars. Pulsars are rotating neutron stars that emit beams of electromagnetic light. The beams produce a lighthouse effect." There is also an illustration of a pulsar which is shown as a blue circle with two beams coming from it (from the top and bottom of the circle).
An image of our Galaxy in gamma rays. The Galaxy is shown within a map of the sky in gamma rays with the Galaxy in bright red. The centre of the Galaxy is brighter indicating an excess of gamma rays. The text reads "What powers the mysterious gamma-ray excess at the centre of our Galaxy?"
The graphic shows some details about the talk and paper. Title: "Probing the millisecond pulsar origin of the 𝜸-ray excess in the Galactic centre with LISA". Presentor: Valeriya Korol. Authors: Valeriya Korol & Andrei Igoshev. Link to paper: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202557265. A plot from the paper is also displayed showing chirp mass against gravitational-wave frequency.
The graphic displays the text: "We show how subtle interactions between noise-reduction algorithms and instrument filtering can affect the measurements, and we provide tools to understand and mitigate these effects—contributing to the robustness of LISA’s future observations." A plot from the paper is also shown.
The graphic displays the text: "This experiment allows us to test both data-analysis techniques and instrument prototypes under realistic conditions." A plot from the paper is also shown.
The graphic displays the text: "When this reference is noisy, extracting the gravitational-wave signal becomes a major challenge. To address this, we use LISA On Table, a dedicated hardware simulator that reproduces realistic LISA signals in the laboratory." The image shows a diagram of LISA next to a flow chart showing how signals move between different components and analysis computers.
The graphic displays the text: "LISA, the future space mission dedicated to gravitational-wave astronomy, will measure tiny changes in distance using laser beams millions of kilometers long. These measurements rely on the frequency stability of the lasers themselves, which act as LISA’s fundamental reference." There is also an image showing a diagram of LISA.
The graphic shows the details of the talk: Presentor: Léon Vidal. Paper authors: Léon Vidal, Hubert Halloin, Nam Dam Quang, Pierre Prat and Antoine Petiteau. Paper title: "Aliased laser noise and TDI coupling with LISA On table" Paper link: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6382/ae134d/pdf Plus an image from the paper which shows a diagram of LISA.
The text displayed is: "For events with signal-to-noise ratio as low as 20 we can differentiate between different formation channels." A plot from the paper is also shown.
The text displayed is: "We showcase the use of MLPs (multi-layer perceptron) to overcome this limit and greatly speed up the process. MLPs are a fully connected neural network." Two plots are also shown.
The text on the graphic is: "Extreme mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) offer a unique way to study the population of massive black holes. Currently population inference with EMRIs is slow due to the computational and time cost of EMRI waveform generation, even on GPUs." Then, in a highlight box: "EMRIs are binary systems in which a small black hole is slowly spiraling into a much larger one." Next to this is a cartoon of a EMRI - illustrated by two black circles, one much larger than the other (representing the two black holes).
The graphic shows details about the talk and paper. Title: "Constraints on Extreme Mass Ratio Inspiral population + Revealing Massive Black Hole astrophysics: hierarchical inference with Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals" Presentor: Shashwat Singh. Authors: Shashwat Singh, Christian Chapman-Bird, Christopher Berry, John Veitch: There is also a plot from the paper shown.
The text reads: "But there is good news: if those individually resolvable binaries are removed first, EMRI searches should work well. Therefore, LISA teams will need good catalogs and careful subtraction of Galactic binary signals in order to unlock the full potential of EMRIs."
The text reads: "We found that the brightest white-dwarf signals can indeed prevent us from correctly identifying EMRIs. But there is good news: if those individually resolvable binaries are removed first, EMRI searches should work well." Alongside the text is a plot from the paper.
The graphic text reads: "We studied how the millions of Galactic white-dwarf binaries filling LISA data can “crosstalk” with EMRIs (Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals), potentially hiding them." The image shows a plot from the paper with label "The EMRI signal is faint in the data."
The graphic displays the following text: "LISA data analysis is hard: there are a lot of signals mixed together in the data. One exciting but faint type of signal comes from an extreme-mass-ratio inspiral (EMRI): a small black hole slowly spiraling into a much larger one." Alongside the text is a cartoon of two black holes orbiting each other (represented by black circles), one circle is much larger than the other.
The graphic shows the title, presentor, and authors. Title: "Assessing signal crosstalk between extreme-mass-ratio inspirals and Galactic binaries in LISA data". Presented by Sviatoslav Khukhlaev. Authors: Sviatoslav Khukhlaev, Stanislav Babak. Link to paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.20062 The image shows a plot from the paper.
The text on the graphic reads "We focus on the late inspiral and plunge of a small body into a supermassive black hole (i.e. an extreme mass ratio inspiral, or "EMRI"), uncovering a dependence of the final coalescence dynamics on the system's initial conditions not seen in circular mergers." Alongside is a illustration of a pair of black holes orbiting each other, one is much bigger than the other.
The text on the graphic read: "This work investigates the unique imprints orbital eccentricity leaves on the gravitational waves produced by binary black holes." A plot from the paper showing "Quasinormal Mode Excitation" is also shown.
The text on the graphic reads: "While many binary black hole systems merge after a sequence of circular orbits, some formation mechanisms allow these systems to have significant eccentricity." A plot from the paper is also shown.
The graphic shows the title of the talk and the authors. Title: "Gravitational waves from the late inspiral, transition, and plunge of small-mass-ratio eccentric binaires". Presented by Devin Becker. Authors: Devin Becker, Scott Hughes, Gaurav Khanna. A plot from the paper is shown.
The text displayed in the image is: "The results are very promising, showing that quantum neural networks require less data and very few trainable parameters to learn gravitational wave signatures from the data. This represents a clear advantage when compared to classical neural networks." The image shows two panels, both with time on the x-axis. The top panel shows "Gravitational Wave Probability" on the y-axis. The bottom panel shows "X-TDI strain" on the y-axis.
The text displayed in the image is: "LISA alert pipelines require fast analysis and quick detection of gravitational waves signals. Given the fast advancement of the quantum computing field, we test the possibility of using quantum neural networks in our low latency alert pipelines." The image is one of the figures from the paper. It shows blue, purple and black squares.
The image shows the title of the presentation and the authors of the paper. Title: "Quantum computing tools for fast detection of gravitational waves in the context of the LISA space mission". Presentor: Maria-Catalina Isfan. Authors: Maria-Catalina Isfan, Laurentiu Caramete, Ana Caramete, Daniel Tonoiu, Alexandru Nicolin-Zaczek. The image shows a flow chart comparing quantum computing with classical computing.
Stephen Taylor LISA Science Team Faculty Member
The text reads: "It's really important to study these types of mergers more, because they could happen a lot and it will be important to understand all the details by the time LISA launches." Alongside a plot showing merging black holes in simulations. There are two peaks in the plot, one for intermediate mass ratios inspirals and another for equal mass (ish) inspirals.
The text on the graphic reads: "Therefore, when dwarf galaxies merge into massive galaxies, their black holes can also merge. This type of merger is known as a intermediate mass ratio inspiral, and it could make up as much as half of massive black hole mergers in Milky Way-sized galaxies. LISA can detect such mergers!"
The text reads: "Massive galaxies are known to host supermassive black holes, but some dwarf galaxies also seem to host intermediate mass black holes." There are illustrations of black holes shown as black circles of various sizes.
Showing a LISA Community Talks graphic. Displayed are the title of the paper and the authors (both shown in the post text). The image shows a picture of a spiral galaxy.
Graphic text: This work connects galactic magnetic fields & their electromagnetic signatures with LISA gravitational-wave observations through their common dependence on hierarchical galaxy mergers, the formation scenario for massive black-hole binaries. Also shown is a plot from the paper.
Graphic displaying text: Gravitational-wave astronomy offers new insights into these systems; the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will observe the mergers of massive black-hole binaries, providing constraints on their hosts' evolution. Massive black hole binaries have mass: ~>10 times the mass of our Sun . Also shown is a plot from the paper.
Text on graphic: Large-scale, micro-Gauss magnetic fields are observed throughout galaxies and relate closely to galactic evolution. Also shown is a plot from the paper.
Graphic shows the title of the paper, the presentor and the authors. Title: Multi-messenger window into galactic magnetic fields and black hole mergers with LISA. Presented by: Nathan Steinle Authors: Anuraag Reddy, Nathan Steinle, Samar Safi-Harb, Jo-Anne Brown https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.18986
An image celebrating International Women's Day. The bottom part of the image shows the silhouettes of 6 women. The top part of the image shows the text "Happy Women's Day from the LISA DEI Committee - 8th March 2026" Around the text there are little cartoons showing stars, black holes, and the LISA constellation. This image has been adapted from a free Canva design by Berru Doğa Nas.
Professor Cruise played a leading role in the development of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission and was instrumental in strengthening the United Kingdom’s contribution to this landmark international endeavour. A distinguished scientist devoted to fundamental research, he made significant contributions to gravitational wave science and to the advancement of space instrumentation. An accomplished educator and advocate of knowledge transfer, Professor Cruise authored the respected textbook The Principles of Space Instrument Design and mentored generations of students and researchers. Even after formally retiring from the University of Birmingham in 2012, he remained actively engaged with ESA, the RAS, the UK Space Agency, and the wider gravitational wave community.
An illustration showing two people against a merging binary system with gravitational waves shown as orange swirls. One person the figure of a woman dancing, the other is the figure of a man in a lab coat. Musical notes surround. The text on the image reads "The sound of gravitational waves February 11th 2026 MAC Hexagon Theatre Cannon Hill Music & Science"