A new class of millisecond-duration radio transients, termed fast radio bursts (FRBs), has been discovered, but the cause of the bursts is unknown. FRB radio dispersion measures (i.e., frequency-dependent arrival time) and sky distribution strongly indicate extragalactic origins out to high redshift. FRB dispersion measures can be used as a powerful tool to probe and measure the ionised baryons in the intergalactic medium out to high redshift and to understand compact source physics producing such immense energies.

To date, no shorter-wavelength FRB counterpart has been found in conventional follow up programs, as they are expected to evolve very quickly.

The Deeper, Wider, Faster (DWF) program coordinates a new ‘proactive’ approach that enables the detection of fast transients with millisecond-to-hours durations and resolves previous obstacles to FRB counterpart detection. DWF uses over 40 telescopes worldwide and in space to perform simultaneous fast cadenced, wide-field, multi-wavelength observations and real-time supercomputer data processing for fast identification and follow-up.

However, there is a gap in this coverage due to the lack of wide-field infrared telescopes and our telescopes will provide a key capability to search for FRB counterparts and fast transients, as many are predicted to be most luminous in the infrared.

Another benefit of wide-field infrared instruments is that FRB fields are often located near the Galactic plane, as they piggy-back surveys searching for pulsars that are located there, meaning that the FRB fields are largely impenetrable at optical wavelengths.