Conferences & Workshops

The 27th Colloquium on High-Resolution Molecular Spectroscopy

Machine learning (ML) techniques are becoming popular in the astronomical community for big data analyses, fitting applications and predictions. The goal of this workshop is to give an overview of the ongoing projects which utilize ML techniques within the current SFB 956, respectively the Cologne and Bonn institutes. The workshop could inspire future projects for the new SFB proposal 2023.

CCAT-prime is a high-altitude submillimeter telescope dedicated to spectral line and panchromatic continuum surveys. This German-U.S.-Canadian project aims to map local star-forming regions and galaxies in [CI] and CO, trace the first population of star-forming galaxies through intensity mapping of their [CII] emission, and measure the motion and temperature of galaxy clusters via the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect. Our splinter invites the German community to discover CCAT-p capabilities and explore joint science opportunities, three years before the first data. Contributed talks are most welcome.

This workshop is intended to bring together people active in the field of laboratory astrophysics in Germany, to exchange ideas and to foster collaborations.

'The Footpoint' is located in the immediate vicinity of super massive black holes and characterized by the presence of an accretion disk as well as the footpoint of a relativistic jet. For a supermassive black hole at the lower end of the mass distribution the disk may be of a temporary nature and the jet may rather be a central wind. Alternatively this region is dominated by an advection dominated accretion flow in which neither disk nor jet are established. These interesting scenarii spawn a multitude of modeling efforts. The meeting touches on several of these efforts as well as on the radio to X-ray data that comprise the observational basis of the modeling and the investigation of physical properties.

In the tradition of the symposia series the focus lies on millimeter, submillimeter and Terahertz technology and application in astrophysics and remote sensing:

• THz systems and instrumentation
• Application of receiver and detector systems
• Heterodyne and direct detectors (SIS, HEB, TES, KID, novel devices)
• Sources and local oscillator systems
• Low noise amplifiers
• Backend signal processors for receiver systems
• Optical design and components
• Measurement techniques
• Laboratory astrophysics

Many physical processes in the ISM have been studied in isolation and under idealized conditions. It is however their nonlinear coupling that fully characterizes the structure and evolution of the multi-phase, dynamically evolving ISM. Therefore, the ISM-SPP was dedicated to study the interplay between various processes in the ISM during the last six years.

Star formation, accretio and feedback in galactic nuclei A recent detection of gravitational waves by LIGO collaboration has strengthened the role of general relativity in understanding the evolution and properties of black holes. Of special importance is the supermassive black hole associated with the compact radio source Sgr A* at the center of the Milky Way. General relativity has been needed to study the effects on event horizon scales as well as post-newtonian effects on stellar orbits in the Galactic center. The informal Cologne-Prague-Kiel meeting will bring together junior as well as senior researchers from Cologne, Prague and Kiel research institutes to exchange their theoretical and observational skills concerning the black hole physics. The meeting will consist of a series of lectures and individual discussions.

The current status and the perspectives of SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. The aircraft is based at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California. The Science Mission Operations center is at NASA Ames, Mountain View, California. In a flight altitude of 12 - 14 km, the observatory is above most of the terrestrial water vapor layer and allows observations throughout the complete IR/FIR wavelength range. SOFIA had its first light in 2010 and is now in fully operational mode with regular deployments to the Southern hemisphere (New Zealand). It has a suite of instruments covering various science areas. The German community participates with two science instruments, the FIR heterodyne Spectrometer GREAT (MPIfR, Bonn; Universität zu Köln; DLR Institut für Optische Sensorsysteme), operated as a Principal Investigator Instrument, and the far-infrared imaging spectrometer FIFI-LS (University of Stuttgart), recently established as a SOFIA Facility Instrument.

Conditions and impact of star formation

High angular resolution in astrophysics: optical interferometry from theory to observations In the last decade, optical/infrared long-baseline interferometry has reached a new stage with the advent of multi-telescope arrays accessible to a broad community of astronomers. The Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) built in Chile and operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is the best example of a fully open and operational interferometric facility. The instruments AMBER, MIDI and PIONIER have delivered so far spectacular results in many fields of astrophysics. The next two years will see the second-generation instruments, GRAVITY and MATISSE, commissioned on the VLTI. They will operate in interferometric mode with the four Unit (8-m) or Auxiliary (1.8-m) telescopes in the near- and mid-infrared spectral ranges (K-, L-, M-, and N-bands). With the increasing number of telescopes that can be combined, interferometers are on the verge to reconstruct complex images at an unprecedented angular resolution. Interferometric techniques are useful for studies of a wide range of astrophysical objects such as young and evolved stars, and active galactic nuclei. The community has to prepare for the best possible exploitation of the second-generation instruments in a way that astronomers from a broad range of topics learn how to use interferometric data for their science.

(Kick-off meeting for collaboration members)

The first SOFIA winter school is intended to bring together young astronomers, scientists, and experienced SOFIA users from the German community at a 5 day meeting dealing with SOFIA relevant astrophysics of the interstellar medium. The winter school is organized by the DFG Schwerpunkt-Programm Physics of the Interstellar Medium and the DFG Sonderforschungsbereich SFB 956 Conditions and Impact of Star Formation. The workshop will include lectures on the physics of the interstellar medium (ISM), such as basics of spectroscopy, dust polarimetry, and the dynamics of the ISM, but also practical courses targeting proposal preparation soft skills and preparation/simulation of observations. Special focus will be on the German PI instruments GREAT and FIFI-LS.

November certainly closes the 2013 observing session during which the compact dusty S-cluster object (DSO - often also called gas cloud G2) will probably have passed massive Black Hole associated with Sagittarius A* (SgrA*) at the center of the Milky Way. This event has spawned great activities in observing the Galactic Center covering the entire electromagnetic spectrum from radio, via infrared to X-ray wavelengths using telescopes across the world. Hence, in Granada we look forward to conclude the presumably fruitful research session on SgrA*.

This workshop is intended to bring together people active in the field of laboratory astrophysics in Germany to exchange ideas and foster collaborations. The laboratory groups in Jena, Kassel, Köln and Heidelberg are organizers of this workshop. Internationally renown guests are invited to the meeting to bring some new ideas to the group.

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are ubiquitous in the Universe. It is widely accepted that most or all massive galaxies harbor a central SMBH. Apparent correlations between the black hole mass and host galaxy structural/dynamical properties, such as the M/σ relation, give rise to the notion of an intimate link between the growth of SMBHs and their host galaxies. Active galactic nuclei (AGN) represent a phase (phases) in the life of a galaxy, during which the SMBH growth is directly observable. The question is, whether such episodes provide a window onto the relevant aspects of the regulation of the growth of the bulges and the SMBHs. The focus of this workshop is on understanding the conditions of star formation in AGN and the interplay between star formation, the active nuclei, and the host galaxies - especially of intermediate redshift (z

Formation and Development of Molecular Clouds - prospects for high resolution spectroscopy with CCAT The CCAT Science Office announces a meeting on Formation and Development of Molecular Clouds - prospects for high resolution spectroscopy with CCAT to take place at the University of Cologne, Germany, from 5-7 October 2011. The goal of the meeting is to get a clear vision of the potential impact of CCAT on the field of Formation and Development of Molecular Clouds, both Galactic and extragalactic, particularly using high spectral resolution instrumentation. The invited speakers have been asked to structure their talks with this goal in mind, not only reporting on past or current results from their research, but also projecting forward on the role CCAT could play in the relevant time frame, particularly in the context of observatories such as ALMA and SOFIA.

The Central Kiloparsec in Galactic Nuclei High angular resolution techniques at infrared and centimeter to millimeter wavelengths have become of ever increasing importance for astrophysical research in the past decade. They have led to important breakthroughs, like the direct imaging of protoplanetary discs and of the first exoplanets, the measurement of stellar orbits around the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, or the detection of sub-parsec-scale jets in low luminosity AGN. With adaptive optics in a mature state, infrared/optical astronomy is pushing toward extreme adaptive optics, extremely large telescopes, and infrared/optical interferometry with large aperture telescopes. At longer wavelengths, large arrays start to conquer the sub-millimeter window, with the mid-term goal of global VLBI at sub-millimeter wavelengths. These new techniques will have enormous impact on the field because they will enable us to address issues such as directly measuring the properties of exoplanets, imaging the surfaces of stars, examining stellar dynamics in extremely dense cluster cores, disentangling the processes at the bottom of black hole accretion flows in the jet launching region, or testing general relativity in the strong gravity regime near the event horizon of supermassive black holes. This conference aims at an interdisciplinary approach by bringing together astrophysicists from the three great branches of the field, instrumentation, observation, and theory, to discuss the current state of research and the possibilities offered by the next-generation instruments.