Cosmic Explorer: The Gravitational Wave Messenger

The growing catalog of gravitational-wave signals from compact-object mergers detected by current ground-based interferometers has allowed us to study the properties of black hole and neutron star binaries with increasing precision. However, the processes governing the formation and evolution of these systems and their electromagnetic counterparts remain largely unconstrained. The next generation of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors will be sensitive to nearly every stellar-mass compact object merger in the universe, expected to observe tens of thousands of these systems per year. Cosmic Explorer is the planned US contribution to the global next-generation network, with an anticipated order of magnitude improvement over the sensitivities of current facilities. In this talk, I will present an overview of Cosmic Explorer including its design concepts and science goals. I will describe its unique capabilities as a probe of compact objects through cosmic time, the dynamics of dense matter, and fundamental physics well beyond what can be achieved with current detectors. Finally, I will highlight its critical role in the multimessenger landscape of the next decade.