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Joe Giaime

@giaime.net
234 followers 165 following 54 posts

Professor, Physics and Astronomy (LSU), LIGO Livingston observatory head (Caltech). Content here is my personal take, not representing my organizations.

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Reposted by Joe Giaime
LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 25/09/2026
The latest issue of the @ligomagazine.bsky.social is now out with all the latest #GravitationalWaves news! Read it for free at ligo.org/wp-content/u... 🔭🧪⚛️🎶
LIGO Magazine Issue 29

A+ bigger beamsplitters: A major upgrade for LIGO's A+ phase, p 18
GWTC-5.0 - the catalogue continues: 161 events added to the collection, p 6
LIGO Virgo KAGRA teamwork: Gravitational-wave autotune, p 8
Sept. 2026 LVK Meeting in Pune: GW research in India, p 11
A decade on... LISA Pathfinder persists in discovery, p 28
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LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 14/09/2026
Happy birthday #GW150914! 11 years ago today, we caught our first gravitational wave, and founded a new type of astronomy A decade later, we now have hundreds of observations! 🔭🧪🎂
Classic plot showing GW150914. Filtered data from LIGO Livingston and LIGO Hanford are shown, both show the characteristic signal of a binary black hole. Crucially, data from the two observatories agree, indicating a real signal.
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 11/09/2026
Interesting article in Physics Today about NSF grantmaking trends for recent years and the present one. I’m grateful that US taxpayer support through NSF has funded high-risk high-reward work. It’s nice to see that photo of LIGO’s test mass suspension, now at the Smithsonian.
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 17/08/2026
Were were only able to localize the source of #GW170817 thanks to the addition of @egovirgo.bsky.social to our network Having at least 3 detectors makes a big difference! bsky.app/profile/egov... #NeutronStarWeek
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LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 17/08/2026
Happy birthday #GW170817, our first observation of a binary neutron star and first gravitational-wave detection with a multimessenger counterpart www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yt5... 🔭🧪⚛️ #NeutronStarWeek
youtube.com
Discovery Plot: GRB170817A
YouTube video by LIGO Virgo KAGRA
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 22/08/2026
We have not yet detected gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars, but this is already telling us something about what they are made from ligo.org/science-summ... #NeutronStarWeek 🧪🔭
ligo.org
Neutron stars: smoother than billiard balls – unfortunately – LSC – LIGO Scientific Collaboration
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
jorgepullin.bsky.social @jorgepullin.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Gabriela González 25 years at @lsu.bsky.social @lsuscience.bsky.social @lsuphysastro.bsky.social @lsuresearch.bsky.social
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 03/07/2026
Swift’s collaborators in LIGO and elsewhere are rooting for this mission!
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 23/06/2026
Side Effect xkcd.com/3261/
5-panel comic. (1) Two people standing, one with a ponytail and the second with white beret] PERSON 2: This new topical medication makes me extra sensitive to sun exposure and gravitational waves. (2) PERSON 1: Oh yeah, that’s a common... wait, what was that last part? PERSON 2: Here comes one now! (3) [Person 2 stretched taller] (4) [Person 2 squished shorter] (5) [Person 2 stretched taller again] PERSON 2: *Wheee!*
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
jorgepullin.bsky.social @jorgepullin.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
www.lsu.edu/physics/news...
lsu.edu
The Physics Community that Met Online Before Online Meetings Existed
Long before Zoom transformed scientific collaboration, LSU physicist Jorge Pullin, Hearne Chair of Theoretical Physics in the LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy, was looking for a way to connect re...
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 13/05/2026
Our latest discoveries—two of the loudest gravitational-wave signals ever: #GW240925 and #GW250207 Using these signals, and our understanding of binary black holes, we can verify that our detectors are correctly calibrated ligo.org/science-summ... 🧪⚛️☄️🔭
The gravitational-wave events GW240924 (top row) and GW250207 (bottom row) as observed by the LIGO Hanford (left column), LIGO Livingston (middle column), and Virgo (right column) observatories. The plots, called spectrograms, show the power spectrum (energy at different frequencies) as a function of time. The signals can be seen as the increase in energy over time (in seconds) and at specific frequencies (in hertz), represented by green and yellow bands. Their shape follows the characteristic chirp pattern produced by gravitational-wave signals. The thickness and brightness of GW250207 shows just how loud it was!
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
jorgepullin.bsky.social @jorgepullin.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
"The flight" of the Bigger Beam Splitter into its final position in the vertex of the interferometer. It is the first time in history an advanced interferometer had its beam splitter replaced. (Video credit: Michael F and Kwentin R).
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 17/04/2026
I very much enjoyed a conversation this morning on the Talk Louisiana radio show with Jim Engster, aired locally on WRKF. We talked about LIGO's science, the risks if a proposed budget cut to the NSF is enacted, and a few other things. www.wrkf.org/show/talk-lo...
wrkf.org
Joe Giaime, Mark Ballard
LSU physics professor and observatory head of LIGO Livingston Joseph Giaime discusses the vital funding for LIGO that is in a precarious state. The Advocate's Mark Ballard talks current political topi...
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 04/04/2026
Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration
Budget proposal would also curb federal payments for scientific publishing.
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 04/04/2026
Slasher sequel: Trump again proposes major cuts to U.S. science spending | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Slasher sequel: Trump again proposes major cuts to U.S. science spending
Science advocates urge Congress to reject 2027 budget plan
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 03/04/2026
The Advocate covers today's President's FY27 Budget Request, including its serious reduction in science funding and the potential impact on LIGO: www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/...
theadvocate.com
Louisiana LIGO facility faces possible budget cuts again in latest federal forecast
“A (nearly) 40% cut would be impossible to accommodate without losing a great number of talented and experienced people needed to continue LIGO’s string of discoveries into the future,” Giaime said.
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
jorgepullin.bsky.social @jorgepullin.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
The LIGO electric guitar goes golden. The new beam splitter mirror is suspended by gold plated wires. As usual, we pre-tensioned them by strumming them as a guitar and measuring the frequency. We do it with an actual electric guitar pickup hooked up to an oscilloscope. @ LIGO - Livingston
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
LIGO Magazine @ligomagazine.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
New #LIGOMagazine out now! : Check it out at: 👉 www.ligo.org/magazine where you can find all editions of LIGO Magazine free to download! @ligo.org - @egovirgo.bsky.social - KAGRA
The front cover of the latest edition of the LIGO Magazine. The main cover image highlights Observing Run 4 (O4) results with the headline "O4 A cornucopia of results". The image shows an artistic illustration of a merging black hole binary with swirling reds and blues. Image by Carl Knox / OzGrav / Swinburne.
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 24/03/2026
Our next LIGO Virgo KAGRA webinar will discuss tests of general relativity with #GWTC4 (papers arxiv.org/abs/2603.19019 arxiv.org/abs/2603.19020 arxiv.org/abs/2603.19021). 26 March at 13:00 UTC, with the recording on YouTube after Register for free wisconsin-edu.zoom.us/webinar/regi... 🔭 ☄️ ⚛️ 🧪
Webinar
GWTC-4.0: Tests of General Relativity
26 March 2026 from 13:00 UTC
Background image: An artistic representation of a binary black hole merger by Aurore Simonnet
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EGO and the Virgo Collaboration @egovirgo.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of Alain Brillet, French physicist, who has been one of the founding fathers of gravitational interferometry and Virgo, along with Adalberto Giazotto, who left us in 2017.
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 03/03/2026
The team prepares to replace LIGO Livingston’s beam splitter with a larger one. The photo includes a human, giving a sense of the vacuum system’s scale.
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
jorgepullin.bsky.social @jorgepullin.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Foggy morning @ LIGO Livingston.
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 14/02/2026
Happy Valentine's Day to all gravitational-wave fans, and especially @egovirgo.bsky.social and KAGRA 💞💗💓
I Heart gravitational waves + you. Happy Valentine's Day! The heart outline is part of a plot showing the chirp of GW150914.

Credit: Zane Zocher, LIGO Hanford. Pictures of LIGO Hanford, KAGRA, LIGO Livingston and Virgo, with the caption "We'll be your Valentine.... just send us a signal". There is a plot of data from GW150914 before signal, because we really love a gravitational wave signal.Two hearts inspiralling together, like a binary merger, over a space-themed background. The caption reads "You spin my heart right round, right round."

Credit: Zane Zocher, LIGO Hanford. Artistic representation of a black hole, with an astronaut in a heart. The caption reads "You must be approaching the event horizon... because time seems to stop when I look at you."

Credit: Carl Knox, OzGrav, Swinburne University of Technology
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 12/02/2026
In addition to the main announcement in Washington DC of LIGO's discovery 10 years ago (yesterday), the two observatory sites held announcement events, including the one pictured here in Livingston, Louisiana.
View of auditorium with around 150 people present for 2016 announcement of gravitational wave discovery.
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
LSU College of Science @lsuscience.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Yesterday marked 10 years since LSU Boyd Professor Gabriela González served as spokesperson for the 1,000+ member LIGO Scientific Collaboration to announce the first direct detection of gravitational waves. Watch: www.youtube.com/live/aEPIwEJ... #GeauxScience
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 11/02/2026
10 years ago today, we told the world "We have detected gravitational waves. We did it!" Relive the moment we shared our result with the world www.youtube.com/live/aEPIwEJ... #GW10Years #OTD 🔭🧪⚛️ 🎂
youtube.com
[LIVE] FIRST Gravitational Waves Detected | LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory)
YouTube video by National Science Foundation News
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LISA Community @lisacommunity.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
10 years ago we were all waiting to learn what @ligo.org and @egovirgo.bsky.social would announce! #GW10Years
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 30/01/2026
Follow-up article by @clargrune.bsky.social in @theadvocatebr.bsky.social about passage of this year's funding of the NSF and its positive effects on LIGO. Special thanks to the taxpayers and the Louisiana congressional delegation for their support.
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 06/01/2026
Welcome coverage of LIGO Livingston's Science Saturdays, held the first Saturday of each month. www.wbrz.com/news/ligo-ob...
wbrz.com
LIGO observatory kicks off new year with Science Saturday
LIVINGSTON - The LIGO observatory kicked off the new year with its first Science Saturday of the year.
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 06/01/2026
Potential good news for research funded by U.S. science agencies NSF and NASA: Congress set to reject Trump’s major budget cuts to NSF, NASA, and energy science | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Congress set to reject Trump’s major budget cuts to NSF, NASA, and energy science
Appropriators agree instead to keep this year’s spending nearly level
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 04/12/2025
2015 was a good year for gravitational-wave astronomy 🔭🧪🛰️ #LPF10anniversary #GW10Years
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 20/11/2025
A coda to Les Guthman's video series about Advanced LIGO, adding an homage to LIGO founder Rainer Weiss.
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 19/11/2025
Our Rapid Response Teams celebrate the end of our fourth observing run. Well done everyone! www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo202... O4 was a success thanks to lots of hard work from across the world. 🔭⚛️🧪
In Japan, KAGRA staff gathered in the control room to celebrate the end of O4. This was the first run that KAGRA took science data simultaneously with Virgo and LIGO.Staff at LIGO Livingston Observatory in Louisiana gathered in the control room to say farewell to O4In Italy, Virgo staff gathered in the control room to celebrate the end of O4.Staff at LIGO Hanford Observatory in Washington State gathered in the control room at 8am to celebrate the end of O4. Everyone enjoyed morning coffee and cake.
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 18/11/2025
and here's how the O4 end of run looked at Virgo!
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 18/11/2025
This morning marked the end of the fourth LIGO - Virgo - KAGRA observational run's third segment, O4c. Here's how it looked in LIGO Livingston's control room.
A group of smiling people—scientists, engineers, detector operators and other observatory specialists—post in LIGO Livingston's control room.  Video displays on the wall and workstations show various real-time data relevant to the run.  Also visible are three clocks: GPS seconds, UTC and local (CDT).
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 29/10/2025
We are pleased to announce our discovery of #GW241011 and #GW241110 Both come from binary black holes where one black hole is much larger than the other. The larger black holes have large spin. Could these black holes have formed in a previous merger? ligo.org/science-summ... #O4IsHere 🔭🧪⚛️☄️
Infographic about GW241011 and GW241110

GW241011's source contained black holes about 13 and 8 times the mass of our Sun. The spin of the bigger black hole is high and bear aligned with the orbit.

GW241110's source contained black holes about 17 and 8 times the mass of our Sun. The spin of the larger black hole is high and near anti-aligned with the orbit.

Credit: Shanika Galaudage/Northwestern University/Adler Planetarium
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
Caltech @caltech.edu · 28/10/2025
A pair of distant black hole mergers, measured just one month apart in late 2024, are improving how scientists understand the nature and evolution of the most violent deep-space collisions in our universe. www.caltech.edu/about/news/c...
caltech.edu
Colliding black holes might have formed from earlier cosmic smashups
Two recent detections have given the international LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration new insights into black hole formation and evolution
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 19/10/2025
Thanks to jorgepullin.bsky.social, proof that LIGO Livingston's guardian alligator is on duty.
a modest-sized alligator suns itself near a green body of water.  This is nothing to worry about.
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 18/09/2025
New Editorial in The Advocate | Times-Picayune about LIGO: www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/...
theadvocate.com
Editorial: Cuts threaten to dim future of LIGO, which has helped La. reach for the stars
Trying to figure out the nature of the universe and our place in it has been a quest of humankind since the beginning of time. That these powerful tools exist today in Louisiana should be a source of ...
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 17/09/2025
A nice piece by Liam Combs on WAFB TV about LIGO’s discovery anniversary. #GW10Years. www.wafb.com/2025/09/15/f...
wafb.com
Federal cuts threaten research at observatory, a decade after historic discovery
President Trump’s federal budget proposal includes a 40% budget cut for LIGO
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 16/09/2025
During the recent LIGO @egovirgo.bsky.social KAGRA meeting, the 2024 winner of the LIGO Laboratory Award for Excellence in Detector Characterization and Calibration, Louis Dartez, received his honorary Calibration Wizard hat. Congratulations to Dr. Dartez! www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/award-e...
Louis Dartez receiving his LIGO Calibration Wizard hat at the September 2025 LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA meeting from Jess McIver. The hat is a traditional pointy blue hat, but is covered with images of lasers.
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 15/09/2025
@clargrune.bsky.social of The Advocate covered the 10th anniversary of our GW detection. www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/...
Amid concerns over potential cuts, Livingston's LIGO scientists mark 10th anniversary of monumental discovery BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD | Staff writer Sep 14, 2025

A signal lasting less than a second traveled about 1.3 billion light years before it reached an obser vatory deep in the piney woods of Livingston 10 years ago.
The brief signal — caused by a pair of black holes colliding - the first gravitational waves ever detected, and it created a new way for scientists to look into the uni-verse.
The Sept. 14, 2015, detection con-tirmed a key prediction of Albert Einstein's general theory of rela-tivity, earned the Nobel Prize in physics and kick-started a new era of astronomy.
"Most of us had figured that with nature being perverse, that the first signal would be really hard to pull out of the noise. And then the signal came beautifully, beautifully clear," said Joseph Giaime, head of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in Livingston.
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 15/09/2025
Gabriela González's keynote slides and voice from LLO's Sept 14 anniversary event are up, thanks to Jorge Pullin! #GW10Years
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 13/09/2025
#GW10Years
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 13/09/2025
Gabriela González gives the keynote at LIGO Livingston’s celebration of the 10th anniversary of our detection of gravitational waves.
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 12/09/2025
I just spend time on the Talk Louisiana radio show, interviewed by the famously knowledgeable La. journalist, Jim Engster: www.wrkf.org/show/talk-lo...
wrkf.org
Joseph Giaime, James Carville
LSU physics professor and observatory head of LIGO Livingston Joseph Giaime talks the 10 year anniversary of the discovery of LIGO and the significant advances throughout the years. Longtime politico ...
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · 11/09/2025
arstechnica.com
New black hole merger bolsters Hawking area theorem
Physicists spliced merger’s gravitational signal into isolated frequencies to determine surface areas.
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 11/09/2025
Strongest black hole collision yet confirms theories of Einstein, Hawking | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Strongest black hole collision yet confirms theories of Einstein, Hawking
Observation confirms that a black hole’s area can only grow and never shrink
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Joe Giaime @giaime.net · 10/09/2025
Press release and resources about the ten years of LIGO observation since our first discovery: www.ligo.caltech.edu/LA/news/ligo...
ligo.caltech.edu
Ten Years Later, LIGO is a Black-Hole Hunting Machine
LIGO and its partners celebrate anniversary, announce verification of Stephen Hawking's Black Hole Area Theorem
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Reposted by Joe Giaime
LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 10/09/2025
What a difference a decade makes! Announcing the clearest #GravitationalWave detection ever #GW250114 youtu.be/2XmZ8-XQ9jU 📓: doi.org/10.1103/kw5g... 🔭🧪⚛️☄️ #O4IsHere
youtu.be
GW250114 – The Clearest of Chirps
YouTube video by LIGO Virgo KAGRA
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