（VC，虚拟专辑）是推动学科开放学术交流的创新出版形式。区别于传统专刊，VC 打破传统专刊模式的固有局限，围绕特定主题开展定向征稿与专题归集，鼓励全球科研人员以更灵活、多元的方式开展学术合作，共同搭建高水平学术交流与资源共享平台!
Virtual Collection (VC) 4.0
: New Frontiers in Astrophysics and Fundamental Physics
Call for papers’ fields
Gravitational-wave astronomy is transforming our understanding of the Universe, connecting the study of compact objects and dynamical spacetime with new approaches to cosmic evolution and fundamental physics. Advances in ground-based observations and , together with preparations for space-based missions and next-generation observatories, are extending the reach of gravitational-wave research across frequencies, source populations, and cosmological epochs. These developments create opportunities to investigate both astrophysical systems and processes in the early Universe. Realizing this potential requires accurate models of individual sources and stochastic backgrounds, precision measurements, robust statistical inference, and innovative computational methods, including artificial intelligence.
This Virtual Collection brings together innovative research across gravitational-wave astronomy, connecting source modeling and detector science with data analysis, astrophysical interpretation, and fundamental physics. Topics encompass relativistic dynamics and waveform modeling, gravitational-wave observations and source populations, statistical and AI-enabled inference, tests of gravity, cosmology and the early Universe, and multiband and multimessenger discovery. The Collection welcomes original research, reviews, perspectives, and commentaries that introduce new physical insights, establish novel observational or computational capabilities, or identify promising directions for the field. By promoting exchange among theorists, observers, instrument scientists, and computational researchers, it aims to advance gravitational-wave astronomy as a powerful framework for investigating the Universe and the laws that govern it.
VC Scope
This Virtual Collection aims to bring together breakthrough research and invites contributions in the following interconnected areas, including but not limited to:
1. Gravitational-wave sources and astrophysical populations
● Black holes across the mass spectrum, neutron stars, white dwarfs, and their binary systems.
● Compact-object formation and evolution, merger populations, and connections to stellar dynamics and galaxy assembly.
● Extreme-mass-ratio inspirals, rotating neutron stars, stellar collapse, and other transient or persistent sources.
2. Relativistic dynamics, waveform modeling, and numerical simulations
● Analytical approaches to relativistic dynamics, black-hole perturbation theory, gravitational self-force, and numerical relativity.
● Accurate inspiral, merger, and ringdown waveforms incorporating eccentricity, spin precession, higher modes, tidal interactions, and environmental effects.
●Numerical simulations of gravitational-wave generation in the early Universe, including cosmological perturbations, phase-transition dynamics, and relativistic fluids.
●Waveform surrogates, model validation, and quantification of theoretical and numerical uncertainties.
3. Data analysis, statistical inference, and artificial intelligence
● Searches for compact binaries, bursts, continuous waves, and stochastic backgrounds; parameter estimation and model selection.
● Global fitting, overlapping signals, foreground and background component separation, and robust inference in non-Gaussian and nonstationary noise.
● Population and cosmological inference, selection effects, and quantification of statistical and systematic uncertainties.
● Machine learning, generative models, and simulation-based inference; physics-informed learning, differentiable simulations, and scalable computing for signal modeling and data analysis.
● AI-assisted discovery, scientific agents, and automated research workflows, supported by open data, reproducible software, uncertainty calibration, and community benchmarks.
4. Tests of gravity and fundamental physics
● Tests of general relativity in the strong-field and radiative regimes, alternative theories of gravity, and gravitational-wave propagation.
● Black-hole spectroscopy, no-hair tests, horizon properties, and nonlinear gravitational dynamics.
● Gravitational-wave probes of dense matter, dark matter, exotic compact objects, and new fundamental fields.
5. Gravitational-wave cosmology, stochastic backgrounds, and the early Universe
● Standard sirens, the cosmic expansion history, and cosmological parameter inference.
● Astrophysical and cosmological stochastic backgrounds across frequency bands, including their spectral features, anisotropies, polarization, and observational discrimination.
● Gravitational waves from first-order cosmological phase transitions, including bubble dynamics, sound waves, and plasma turbulence.
● Scalar-induced gravitational waves, primordial curvature perturbations and non-Gaussianity, and connections to primordial black-hole formation and abundance.
● Gravitational-wave signatures of inflation, reheating, cosmic strings, and other early-Universe processes, and their implications for high-energy physics.
6. Multiband and multimessenger astronomy
● Joint observations and inference across ground-based detectors, space-based observatories, and pulsar timing arrays.
● Connections between gravitational waves, electromagnetic emission, neutrinos, and their common astrophysical sources.
● Early warning, rapid localization, coordinated follow-up, and implications for merger physics, nucleosynthesis, and cosmic evolution.
7.Detector science, enabling technologies, and future observatories
● Detector concepts and technologies for terrestrial and space-based interferometry, pulsar timing, and emerging approaches to gravitational-wave observation.
● Precision metrology, quantum sensing, detector response, calibration, and noise characterization and mitigation.
● Science forecasts, observing strategies, and mission preparation for , and next-generation gravitational-wave observatories.
VC Host
1
王 赫
副研究员
中国科学院大学国际理论物理中心（亚太地区）E系列副研究员。2020年博士毕业于北京师范大学物理系后，先后在中国科学院理论物理研究所、鹏城国家实验室（访问学者）和中国科学院大学从事博士后研究工作。目前作为LIGO-Virgo_KAGRA机器学习算法组co-chair，LISA core member 和国家天文科学数据中心青年数据科学家，作为核心成员重点参与中国空间引力波探测“”的科学数据分析工作，已在国内外学术期刊发表SCI论文40余篇。其研究涵盖引力波信号搜索、噪声建模、参数反演及其与多信使天文学的交叉应用。
2
研究员
上海天文台研究员、中国科学院大学岗位教授，国科大杭高院双聘教授，意大利ICRANet兼职教授，博士生导师。2009年博士毕业于上海天文台，后在意大利ICRA，韩国KASI和美国密苏里大学等做博士后和访问学者，现为上海天文台引力波与相对论基本天文学课题组组长。长期从事引力波天文学研究，主要聚焦于波源物理、波形模板、引力理论和宇宙学模型检验等。目前已发表SCI论文150余篇，专著两部。
3
研究员
北京大学科维理天文与天体物理研究所研究员、博士生导师。2015年毕业于北京大学理论物理专业，2015-2018年在德国马普学会做博士后研究。其研究涵盖引力波天文学、脉冲星天文学，以及利用天体物理观测探索超越标准模型和广义相对论的新物理，具体兴趣包括引力理论检验、引力波、脉冲星与中子星、暗物质的天体物理研究、黑洞时空、基础物理的精密检验以及贝叶斯数据分析与统计。
4
教授
北京师范大学文理学院物理系教授。2015 年博士毕业于西澳大学，先后于西澳大学、蒙纳士大学从事科研工作。主要研究方向为引力波天体物理，系 LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA 合作组成员（2021 年起任 KAGRA科学合作组常务委员）、PPTA 项目核心成员，曾多次担任 IPTA 指导委员会委员。参与 GW150914 引力波首次直接探测，在国内外学术期刊发表论文200余篇。
5
王少江
副研究员
中国科学院理论物理研究所副研究员。2018年博士毕业于中国科学院理论物理研究所后，先后在美国波士顿Tufts大学（2018—2020年）、中国科学院理论物理研究所（2021—2023年，特别研究助理/博士后）从事博士后研究工作，2023年起任副研究员，同时兼任韩国亚太理论物理中心Associated Fellow。主要从事宇宙学、引力波等方向的研究工作，近期聚焦于宇宙学相变、原初黑洞、随机引力波背景、哈勃常数危机和暗能量等研究。
For Authors
Submission Deadline: Dec. 31, 2027.
Submission Online:
TIAS: https://innovision.the-innovation-academy.org/j/the-innovation-astronomy
XINN: https://www.editorialmanager.com/the-innovation/default2.aspx
Submission Instructions: Please clearly indicate at the end of the Cover Letter that “This manuscript is submitted to the Gravitational-Wave Astronomy: New Frontiers in Astrophysics and Fundamental Physics and will be collected in this collection upon acceptance.”
Virtual Collection Official Website:
https://www.the-innovation.org/the-innovation-astronomy/Collections/gwagh
Call for papers’ types
Publication Standard: Rigorously follows the same peer-review, editorial, and publishing standards as The Innovation Astronomy.
Promotion: Each article, upon formal publication, will be promoted through major domestic and international media channels. In addition, all published articles will be collected into this Virtual Collection and presented on The Innovation Astronomy official website via a dedicated webpage.
Contact | 联系
[email protected]
Call for Papers
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