RESCEU Cannon group

Welcome to the Cannon Group at RESCEU, The University of Tokyo. Our group works on gravitational-wave physics, astronomy, and data analysis.

Gravitational waves (GWs) are tiny ripples in spacetime propagating through the Universe, predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The first direct detection of GWs was achieved in 2015 by the LIGO Scientific Collabaration. These signals originated from two black holes orbiting each other and eventually merging. Since this groundbreaking discovery, more than 200 compact binary merger events have been observed through the global gravitational-wave detector network, including LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA.

GWs provide a new way to explore the Universe. They allow us to study compact objects such as black holes and neutron stars, probe the evolution of the Universe, investigate the origin of heavy elements, test the fundamental nature of gravity, and uncover many other exciting astrophysical and cosmological phenomena.

Because GW signals are extremely weak, they are often deeply buried in instrumental noise. Extracting these faint signals requires sophisticated data-analysis methods and large-scale computational pipelines. Our group focuses on developing advanced algorithms, software, and low-latency analysis pipelines to efficiently detect gravitational waves and maximize the scientific information that can be obtained from them. We are particularly interested in real-time GW detection, multi-messenger astronomy, and data analysis for the international LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Collaboration.