The 100 years since the publication of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity saw significant development of the understanding of the theory, the identification of potential astrophysical sources of sufficiently strong gravitational waves and development of key technologies for gravitational-wave detectors. In 2015, the first gravitational-wave signals were detected by the two US Advanced LIGO instruments. In 2017, Advanced LIGO and the European Advanced Virgo detectors pinpointed a binary neutron star coalescence that was also seen across the electromagnetic spectrum. The field of gravitational-wave astronomy is just starting, and this Roadmap of future developments surveys the potential for growth in bandwidth and sensitivity of future gravitational-wave detectors, and discusses the science results anticipated to come from upcoming instruments.

自从爱因斯坦的广义相对论发表以来的100年间，人们对该理论的认识有了新的发展，发现了具有足够强引力波的潜在天体物理源，并开发了引力波探测器的关键技术。2015年，两台美国先进的LIGO仪器检测到了第一个重力波信号。2017年，先进的LIGO和欧洲的先进的处女座探测器确定了在电磁波谱中也可见到的双星中子星聚结。引力波天文学领域才刚刚起步，这份未来发展路线图调查了未来引力波探测器的带宽和灵敏度的增长潜力，