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Workshop Rationale
The LIGO-Virgo-Kagra (LVK) Observing run 4 is due to end in October 2025. With just over 3 months of operations left, the prospects of mutliple events with joint electromagnetic and gravational wave detections appears remote. In August 2025 it will be eight years since the binary neutron star merger GW170817 and its associated gamma-ray burst and kilonova. Since then there has only been one other detection of a high significance binary neutron star merger, GW190425, in graviatational waves. However in a surprising development, there have been two detections of kilonova signatures in apparently long gamma-ray bursts in 2021 and 2023, at relatively nearby distances of around 300Mpc.
The European community invested significant effort and resources to form ENGRAVE, securing a large allocation of VLT time for a single, dedicated programme by ESO member state scientists. The sources we expected to trigger on, BNS or NSBH mergers within 100-200Mpc with electromagnetic counterparts, have not been found. With the end of O4 approaching it would be timely to review the field and plan for Observing Run 5. While the lack of nearby BNS mergers is disappointing, the discovery of kilonovae emerging from long GRBs at low redshifts is remarkable. Gravitational wave detection sensitivity will increase in O5. The Rubin Observatory's confirmed target of opportunity follow-up, the wide-field UV and x-ray missions (e.g. Einstein Probe, SVOM, ULTRASAT), new wide-field galaxy redshift surveys, and ongoing all-sky optical surveys offer scientific promise for the multiple discoveries we hope will change the field.
The Wetton Workshop 2025 will provide a forum for discussion of recent results on kilonovae and gamma-rays bursts and discuss plans for O5 and the associated new missions and ground based facilities that will impact the field. We will ask ourselves questions around the future of the field and what we can do to shape it.
Discussion items
- Observing Run 5 and post O5 plans
- Can we learn from the BBH and NSBH events to date ?
- Optimal observations for the next kilonova - JWST, HST and ESO
- Progress on understanding kilonovae since GW170817 - observables, theory, GW signals
- Chemical enrichment of the r-process, and rates of BNS
- Enhancing search and discovery by combining optical surveys : search strategies and joint analyses
- 3G detectors and space missions in the 2035+ timeframe
Date:
2nd - 3rd September 2025
Location:
Sir Michael Dummett Lecture Theatre Complex, Christ Church, Oxford.
Lunches, tea and coffee will be provided each day. A social dinner will be held on September 2nd. There is no registration fee.
On the evening of September 2nd, the 5th Wetton lecture "...." will be delivered by ....
Contact:
For scientific matters : please contact Prof Stephen Smartt, chair of the organising committee (stephen.smartt@physics.ox.ac.uk )
For administrative matters : please contact Cigdem Arnison (cigdem.arnison@physics.ox.ac.uk)
