Improving cosmological reach of a gravitational wave observatory using Deep Loop Shaping

Jonas Buchli; Brendan Tracey; Tomislav Andric; Christopher Wipf; Yu Him Justin Chiu; Matthias Lochbrunner; Craig Donner; Rana X. Adhikari; Jan Harms; Iain Barr; Roland Hafner; Andrea Huber; Abbas Abdolmaleki; Charlie Beattie; Joseph Betzweiser; Serkan Cabi; Jonas Degrave; Yuzhu Dong; Leslie Fritz; Anchal Gupta; Oliver Groth; Sandy Huang; Tamara Norman; Hannah Openshaw; Jameson Rollins; Greg Thornton; George van den Driessche; Markus Wulfmeier; Pushmeet Kohli; Martin Riedmiller; The LIGO Instrument Team

doi:10.1126/science.adw1291

Improving cosmological reach of a gravitational wave observatory using Deep Loop Shaping

Jonas Buchli^*
, Brendan Tracey
, Tomislav Andric
, Christopher Wipf
, Yu Him Justin Chiu
, Matthias Lochbrunner
, Craig Donner
, Rana X. Adhikari^*
, Jan Harms^*
, Iain Barr
, Roland Hafner
, Andrea Huber
, Abbas Abdolmaleki
, Charlie Beattie
, Joseph Betzweiser
, Serkan Cabi
, Jonas Degrave
, Yuzhu Dong
, Leslie Fritz
, Anchal Gupta

Oliver Groth, Sandy Huang, Tamara Norman, Hannah Openshaw, Jameson Rollins, Greg Thornton, George van den Driessche, Markus Wulfmeier, Pushmeet Kohli^*, Martin Riedmiller, The LIGO Instrument Team

^*Corresponding author for this work

Physics and Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Improved low-frequency sensitivity of gravitational wave observatories would unlock study of intermediate-mass black hole mergers and binary black hole eccentricity and provide early warnings for multimessenger observations of binary neutron star mergers. Today’s mirror stabilization control injects harmful noise, constituting a major obstacle to sensitivity improvements. We eliminated this noise through Deep Loop Shaping, a reinforcement learning method using frequency domain rewards. We proved our methodology on the LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO). Our controller reduced control noise in the 10- to 30-hertz band by over 30x and up to 100x in subbands, surpassing the design goal motivated by the quantum limit. These results highlight the potential of Deep Loop Shaping to improve current and future gravitational wave observatories and, more broadly, instrumentation and control systems.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1012-1015
Number of pages	4
Journal	Science
Volume	389
Issue number	6764
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adw1291
Publication status	Published - 4 Sept 2025

Bibliographical note

Correction (24 October 2025): Reference 16 was inadvertently removed during the review process; it was added backin, and all subsequent references were renumbered. Additionally, the date of experiment was listed incorrectly in themain text and supplementary materials, and one of the non-byline author affiliations in the supplementary materialswas accidentally duplicated; both of these errors were corrected.

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Buchli, J., Tracey, B., Andric, T., Wipf, C., Chiu, Y. H. J., Lochbrunner, M., Donner, C., Adhikari, R. X., Harms, J., Barr, I., Hafner, R., Huber, A., Abdolmaleki, A., Beattie, C., Betzweiser, J., Cabi, S., Degrave, J., Dong, Y., Fritz, L., ... The LIGO Instrument Team (2025). Improving cosmological reach of a gravitational wave observatory using Deep Loop Shaping. Science, 389(6764), 1012-1015. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adw1291

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title = "Improving cosmological reach of a gravitational wave observatory using Deep Loop Shaping",

abstract = "Improved low-frequency sensitivity of gravitational wave observatories would unlock study of intermediate-mass black hole mergers and binary black hole eccentricity and provide early warnings for multimessenger observations of binary neutron star mergers. Today{\textquoteright}s mirror stabilization control injects harmful noise, constituting a major obstacle to sensitivity improvements. We eliminated this noise through Deep Loop Shaping, a reinforcement learning method using frequency domain rewards. We proved our methodology on the LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO). Our controller reduced control noise in the 10- to 30-hertz band by over 30x and up to 100x in subbands, surpassing the design goal motivated by the quantum limit. These results highlight the potential of Deep Loop Shaping to improve current and future gravitational wave observatories and, more broadly, instrumentation and control systems.",

author = "Jonas Buchli and Brendan Tracey and Tomislav Andric and Christopher Wipf and Chiu, \{Yu Him Justin\} and Matthias Lochbrunner and Craig Donner and Adhikari, \{Rana X.\} and Jan Harms and Iain Barr and Roland Hafner and Andrea Huber and Abbas Abdolmaleki and Charlie Beattie and Joseph Betzweiser and Serkan Cabi and Jonas Degrave and Yuzhu Dong and Leslie Fritz and Anchal Gupta and Oliver Groth and Sandy Huang and Tamara Norman and Hannah Openshaw and Jameson Rollins and Greg Thornton and \{van den Driessche\}, George and Markus Wulfmeier and Pushmeet Kohli and Martin Riedmiller and \{The LIGO Instrument Team\} and Ubhi, \{A. S.\} and A. Vecchio",

note = "Correction (24 October 2025): Reference 16 was inadvertently removed during the review process; it was added backin, and all subsequent references were renumbered. Additionally, the date of experiment was listed incorrectly in themain text and supplementary materials, and one of the non-byline author affiliations in the supplementary materialswas accidentally duplicated; both of these errors were corrected.",

year = "2025",

month = sep,

day = "4",

doi = "10.1126/science.adw1291",

language = "English",

volume = "389",

pages = "1012--1015",

journal = "Science",

issn = "0036-8075",

publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",

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Buchli, J, Tracey, B, Andric, T, Wipf, C, Chiu, YHJ, Lochbrunner, M, Donner, C, Adhikari, RX, Harms, J, Barr, I, Hafner, R, Huber, A, Abdolmaleki, A, Beattie, C, Betzweiser, J, Cabi, S, Degrave, J, Dong, Y, Fritz, L, Gupta, A, Groth, O, Huang, S, Norman, T, Openshaw, H, Rollins, J, Thornton, G, van den Driessche, G, Wulfmeier, M, Kohli, P, Riedmiller, M & The LIGO Instrument Team 2025, 'Improving cosmological reach of a gravitational wave observatory using Deep Loop Shaping', Science, vol. 389, no. 6764, pp. 1012-1015. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adw1291

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T1 - Improving cosmological reach of a gravitational wave observatory using Deep Loop Shaping

AU - Buchli, Jonas

AU - Tracey, Brendan

AU - Andric, Tomislav

AU - Wipf, Christopher

AU - Chiu, Yu Him Justin

AU - Lochbrunner, Matthias

AU - Donner, Craig

AU - Adhikari, Rana X.

AU - Harms, Jan

AU - Barr, Iain

AU - Hafner, Roland

AU - Huber, Andrea

AU - Abdolmaleki, Abbas

AU - Beattie, Charlie

AU - Betzweiser, Joseph

AU - Cabi, Serkan

AU - Degrave, Jonas

AU - Dong, Yuzhu

AU - Fritz, Leslie

AU - Gupta, Anchal

AU - Groth, Oliver

AU - Huang, Sandy

AU - Norman, Tamara

AU - Openshaw, Hannah

AU - Rollins, Jameson

AU - Thornton, Greg

AU - van den Driessche, George

AU - Wulfmeier, Markus

AU - Kohli, Pushmeet

AU - Riedmiller, Martin

AU - The LIGO Instrument Team

AU - Ubhi, A. S.

AU - Vecchio, A.

N1 - Correction (24 October 2025): Reference 16 was inadvertently removed during the review process; it was added backin, and all subsequent references were renumbered. Additionally, the date of experiment was listed incorrectly in themain text and supplementary materials, and one of the non-byline author affiliations in the supplementary materialswas accidentally duplicated; both of these errors were corrected.

PY - 2025/9/4

Y1 - 2025/9/4

N2 - Improved low-frequency sensitivity of gravitational wave observatories would unlock study of intermediate-mass black hole mergers and binary black hole eccentricity and provide early warnings for multimessenger observations of binary neutron star mergers. Today’s mirror stabilization control injects harmful noise, constituting a major obstacle to sensitivity improvements. We eliminated this noise through Deep Loop Shaping, a reinforcement learning method using frequency domain rewards. We proved our methodology on the LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO). Our controller reduced control noise in the 10- to 30-hertz band by over 30x and up to 100x in subbands, surpassing the design goal motivated by the quantum limit. These results highlight the potential of Deep Loop Shaping to improve current and future gravitational wave observatories and, more broadly, instrumentation and control systems.

AB - Improved low-frequency sensitivity of gravitational wave observatories would unlock study of intermediate-mass black hole mergers and binary black hole eccentricity and provide early warnings for multimessenger observations of binary neutron star mergers. Today’s mirror stabilization control injects harmful noise, constituting a major obstacle to sensitivity improvements. We eliminated this noise through Deep Loop Shaping, a reinforcement learning method using frequency domain rewards. We proved our methodology on the LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO). Our controller reduced control noise in the 10- to 30-hertz band by over 30x and up to 100x in subbands, surpassing the design goal motivated by the quantum limit. These results highlight the potential of Deep Loop Shaping to improve current and future gravitational wave observatories and, more broadly, instrumentation and control systems.

U2 - 10.1126/science.adw1291

DO - 10.1126/science.adw1291

M3 - Article

SN - 0036-8075

VL - 389

SP - 1012

EP - 1015

JO - Science

JF - Science

IS - 6764

ER -

Improving cosmological reach of a gravitational wave observatory using Deep Loop Shaping

Abstract

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