The Deeper Wider Faster Programme: Chasing the Fastest Bursts in the Universe

Abstract

The Deeper Wider Faster programme (DWF) is a project that coordinates more than 30 multi-wavelength and multi-messenger facilities worldwide and in space, in order to detect and study fast transients (durations of milliseconds to hours). DWF has four main components: (1) simultaneous observations, where ∼10 major facilities, from radio to gamma-ray, are coordinated to perform short-cadence, deep, wide-field observations of the same field at the same time. Radio telescopes search for fast radio bursts, while optical imagers and high-energy instruments search for transient events whose time-scales are seconds to hours, (2) supercomputer data processing and candidate identification in real time (seconds to minutes), along with human inspection of candidates, also in real time (minutes), using sophisticated visualisation technology, (3) rapid-response (minutes) follow-up spectroscopy and imaging, and conventional ToO observations, and (4) long-term follow up by a global network of 1-m to 4-m telescopes. The principal goals of DWF are to discover and study counterparts to fast radio bursts and gravitational-wave events, as well as transients at all wavelengths that have durations of milliseconds to hours.