Prospects for joint radio telescope and gravitational-wave searches for astrophysical transients

The radio skies remain mostly unobserved when it comes to transient phenomena. The direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs) will mark a major milestone of modern astronomy, as an entirely new window will open on the universe. Two apparently independent phenomena can be brought together in a coincident effort that has the potential to boost both searches. In this paper we will outline the scientific case that stands behind these future joint observations and will describe the methods that might be used to conduct the searches and analyse the data. The targeted sources are binary systems of compact objects, known to be strong candidate sources for GWs. Detection of transients coincident in these two channels would be a significant 'smoking gun' for first direct detection of GWs and would open up a new field for characterization of astrophysical transients involving massive compact objects.