
About this website This web site describes work related to some of the biggest explosions throughout the Universe - short lasting blasts that release massive amounts of energy. These can be gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) or the gravitational wave (GW) emissions from supernovae or merging binary systems of neutron stars and black holes. A lot of my work uses statistical methods to probe large data sets of cosmological transient events - the goal is to determine global properties such as the event rates or the form of the luminosity function. I also estimate the expected rates and detection prospects for GW/GRB coincident events. Some of my methods can be used to seperate out different populations of events that exist within the same data set - this is another interest. March 2016 Capturing the electromagnetic counterparts of binary neutron star mergers through low latency gravitational wave triggers This paper is now accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. It looks at the prospects of low-latency follow-ups by electromagnetic instruments to gravitational wave triggers from binary neutron star mergers. As such mergers are associated with short hard gamma-ray bursts, electromagnetic observations at early times could provide valuable clues on the early engine activity of these explosions. It considers electromagnetic instruments from the radio domain all the way up to the high energy gamma-ray. December 2015 Hunting Gravitational Waves with Multi-Messenger Counterparts: Australia's Role This paper is now accepted by publication in PASA as an invited review for a special issue on Gravitational Wave Astronomy. It looks at how Australian astronomical facilities and collaborations with the gravitational wave community can contribute to this new era of Gravitational Wave discovery. It includes contributions from all of the facilities involved in gravitational wave follow-up. August 2014 Constraining the rate and luminosity function of Swift gamma-ray bursts This paper is now accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS, 444,15 (2014) ). It describes a new observation-time — peak luminosity relation that is used to supplement to standard brightness distribution relations (log N — log P ) to help constrain the rate density and parameters of the luminosity function. May 2014 Swift Long Gamma Ray Burst Luminosity Data A new sample of Long Gamma-Ray Burst Peak Luminosity data is now available. The sample contains data for 209 Swift bursts up to August 2013 using a well defined selection criteria and individually determined luminosities. February 2013 A redshift–observation time relation for gamma-ray bursts: evidence of a distinct subluminous population This paper, accepted by MNRAS describes a new observation-time — redshift relation. It can be used to seperate out different populations of transient events within the same data sample. In this study, the relation is used to show that sub-luminous gamma-ray bursts are a distinct population that occur at a much higher event rate than classical long gamma-ray bursts. Dr Eric J Howell, Research Fellow, Australian International Gravitational Research Centre, School of Physics, University of Western Australia, Crawley WA 6009, Australia. eric.howell@uwa.edu.au