The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration has announced the detection of the merger of the most massive black holes ever observed with gravitational waves. The merger produced a final black hole more than 225 times the mass of our Sun. The signal, designated GW231123, was observed during the fourth observing run (O4) of the LVK network on November 23, 2023. The two black holes that merged were approximately 103 and 137 times the mass of the Sun. In addition to their high masses they are also rapidly spinning, making this a uniquely challenging signal to interpret and suggesting the possibility of a complex formation history.
Further information: https://polgraw.camk.edu.pl/posts/2025-07-14/
The members of the LVK collaboration at CAMK: Michał Bejger, Paweł Ciecieląg, Przemysław Figura, Brynmore Haskell, Sreekanth Harikumar, Anirudh Nemmani, Mariusz Suchenek, Sudhagar Suyamprakasam.
