Dear Colleague,

following the meeting “Challenges and Opportunities of High-Frequency Gravitational Wave Detection”, held in Trieste in 2019 (http://indico.ictp.it/event/9006/overview), various discussions have taken place to chart a path towards very high-frequency gravitational wave science. Some of these discussions have already been included in a document, submitted to the ArXiv back in November (https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.12414), that summarizes the state-of-the-art of the field. This workshop was the first step towards the creation of a network of researchers - for which we propose the name UHF-GW - for the development of gravitational wave science in the frequency range above 10 kHz. We have recently created a webpage that will collect all the information related to the UHF-GW initiative: http://www.ctc.cam.ac.uk/activities/UHF-GW.php.

One issue identified in Trieste was the need for technological development of the various detector schemes being currently considered. This announcement invites groups working on detector development to contribute to a roadmap defining the medium and long term objectives for such a program. Such a roadmap might form an important part of a future UHF-GW workshop, to be held online in September/October 2021.

We believe that the first stage necessary for us to coordinate such a plan is to gather information from interested groups about their current and planned technology via a questionnaire (see below). Upon authorization of the respective respondents, the responses will be collated and made available to all participants (for more details, see below the section ‘Disclosure’). This body of information could then be openly discussed in detail at a subsequent meeting.

Another point identified in the Trieste meeting is the importance of sharpening the science case for gravitational wave physics in the frequency band above 10 kHz. Hence, we also invite theory groups and researchers who would like to support this initiative to contribute to this questionnaire, specifying the scientific reasons that make this subject relevant to their research.

The goals of this process are first, to enable a wider technical audience to contribute to design advances, and secondly, to assist groups in proposals for national funding by providing better international visibility and coordination. It is proposed that the UHF-GW community secures an interface to GWIC (https://gwic.ligo.org), a subunit of IUPAP (https://iupap.org), lending international status to these efforts.

It is proposed that this technology group within UHF-GW adopts a simple set of governance rules and a code of conduct. A draft version of this document is attached for comment and improvement.