The LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) and the Virgo Collaboration currently plan to start taking data in 2015, and we expect the sensitivity of the network to improve over time. Gravitational-wave transient candidates will be identified promptly upon acquisition of the data; we aim for distributing information with an initial latency of a few tens of minutes initially, possibly improving later. The LSC and the Virgo Collaboration (LVC) are now working to develop a program of accompanying electromagnetic observations. Early positional accuracies of the GW candidates will evolve in time, as described in arxiv.org:1304.0670. During early science runs before publication of the first four gravitational wave events, alerts will be available only through partnerships to be developed under this program (ref. LIGO-M1200055). Partners will be asked to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) involving an agreement on deliverables, publication policies, confidentiality, and reporting. After the publication of the first four gravitational wave events, the current LVC plan is to release alerts on all highly significant detection candidates promptly to the entire scientific community.
Open call for Letters of Interest
Participants should have received an invitation to this meeting - if you are not sure about having received one, please contact LSC-Spokesperson@ligo.org or virgo-spokesperson@ego-gw.it.
This meeting will take place at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW) (map, directions). Hotels can be booked through websites such as ebookers.com or hotels.com.
Link to the companion meeting in Chicago.