Welcome to our home page! Research in this group, in collaboration with the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), the VIRGO collaboration, and the LOFAR collaboration, is aimed at the detection and study of transient signals from astrophysical sources in gravitational waves and electromagnetic waves. The detection of transient signals from these two sources simultaneously would be one of the best smoking guns for the first direct detection of gravitational waves, and would open up a new field for the study of astrophysical compact objects and physics in strong gravitational fields.

Within this research area we focus on two topics. Firstly, methods for online searches for gravitational wave transients in detectors run by the LSC and VIRGO. Secondly, joint observations of transients through gravitational waves and electromagnetic detectors.

Research into online searches is carried out in close collaboration with the burst working group of the LSC/Virgo science collaboration. Joint gravitational wave / electromagnetic observation research is carried out in close collaboration with the LOOCUP subgroup of the LSC/Virgo burst working group. No joint observations have yet been carried out, though joint observations are planned for the S6/VSR2 gravitational wave observation run scheduled to start in the summer of 2009. Agreements between LSC/Virgo, our own external collaborators, and research groups external to LSC/Virgo, are being proposed and constructed to allow these joint observations to take place.