Prof. Jeffrey Cooke(Swinburne University of Technology (Australia))
* Title
Detecting the fastest bursts in the Universe at all wavelengths and high-energy particles
* Abstract
Many transients are predicted on millisecond-to-hours timescales at all wavelengths, such as fast radio bursts (FRBs), supernova shock breakouts, orphan GRBs, X-ray bursts, Type Ia supernova/companion star collisions, kilonovae, blitzars, and other exotic events, with most classes having no detections or a few serendipitous observations to date. This fast time domain has remained essentially unexplored largely a result of technological barriers. I will discuss our innovative Deeper, Wider, Faster (DWF) program that coordinates radio through gamma-ray telescopes and particle detectors to simultaneously gather deep, wide-field, fast-cadenced observations and all possible data before, during, and after the fast events before they quickly fade away. DWF performs real-time (seconds) data processing, analysis, and transient identification at all wavelengths to trigger rapid-response (in minutes) spectroscopy on 1-8m-class optical telescopes and radio and high-energy telescopes as part of the program. Finally, DWF coordinates a network of global telescopes to perform later-time observations, as some fast transients are associated with longer-duration events (e.g., supernova shock breakouts). I will discuss the progress of the program and highlight our previous run with KMTNet leading the wide-field optical observations. DWF is the best program to resolve the nature of FRBs and other rare fast transients, fully characterise the fast transient sky, and uncover new and unexpected phenomena.