Searches for Gravitational Wave Transients in the Ligo and Virgo Data

In 2011, the Virgo gravitational wave (GW) detector will definitively end its science program following the shut-down of the LIGO detectors the year before. The years to come will be devoted to the development and installation of second generation detectors. It is the opportune time to review what has been learned from the GW searches in the kilometric interferometers data. Since 2007, data have been collected by the LIGO and Virgo detectors. Analyses have been developed and performed jointly by the two collaborations. Though no detection has been made so far, meaningful upper limits have been set on the astrophysics of the sources and on the rate of GW events. This paper will focus on the transient GW searches performed over the last 3 years. This includes the GW produced by compact binary systems, supernovae core collapse, pulsar glitches or cosmic string cusps. The analyses which have been specifically developed for that purpose will be presented along with the most recent results.