From stars to black holes:
mm-VLBI with ALMA and other telescopes
Scientific Workshop – June
27- 28, 2012, ESO, Garching
The
program,
a list of participants,
the presentations,
and a photo gallery
are available online.
Motivation and Scope
In this workshop
we wanted to assess the future of very long baseline interferometry (VLBI)
experiments at millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths and the role new
telescopes like the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) will have. The
unprecedented sensitivity, broad frequency coverage, and unique location of
ALMA will have the potential to transform the science that can be done with
mm-VLBI. With expected spatial resolutions as low as some microarcseconds at
the highest frequencies and mJy sensitivities at the lower frequencies, quite a
range of high-profile experiments should be possible. The science that can be
addressed ranges from the precise astrometry and study of stellar masers down
to observations of jets and the event horizon of supermassive black holes.
At this workshop
we wanted to make an inventory of the science interests of the European user
community of ALMA for VLBI experiments from wavelengths of 7 mm (for which
receivers are yet to be built) all the way to sub-mm wavelengths. This should
involve not only current VLBI users but also those who are just becoming
interested in this rapidly evolving field.
The workshop is
timely, as ALMA is quickly improving its capabilities, plans for phasing of the
array are becoming more concrete, and digital VLBI equipment is also improving.
The main focus of
the meeting was be on developing the European science case. However, in
addition we also wanted to use the opportunity to start first discussions on the
organization of the mm-VLBI efforts and review some of the technical
capabilities available in Europe.
Venue
The workshop took
place at the ESO headquarters in Garching, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748
Garching (near Munich), Germany, in the ESO Auditorium.
Format
The meeting went
from lunchtime, June 27 to lunchtime, June 28, 2012. It was scheduled to start
right after the ALMA
community days. The program began with an afternoon of short invited and
contributed science presentations from various groups. On the following
morning, the meeting concluded with additional scientific and technical
presentations and discussions on the development of a coherent science case and
a technical roadmap. The discussions at the workshop will form the basis of a
written European science case, intended for wider circulation within the ALMA
and VLBI communities.
Participants
Registration has
closed. Over 65 people registered for the workshop:
James Allison, James Anderson, Paola Andreani,
Anne-Kathrin Baczko, Italo Balestra, Alain Baudry, Cardolle Bel, Tobias
Beuchert, Stefano Bianchi, Andy Biggs, Wilfried Boland, Margherita Bonzini,
Michael Bremer, Christiaan Brinkerink, Andreas Brunthaler, Chin-Shin Chang,
Patrick Charlot, Francisco Colomer, John Conway, Colm Coughlan, David Cseh,
Maria Diaz Trigo, Shep Doeleman, Frank Eisenhauer, Heino Falcke, Denise
Gabuzda, Roberto Galvan-Madrid, Melanie Gendre, Stefan Gillessen, Gabriele
Giovannin, Marcello Giroletti, Ciriaco Godd Thijs de Graauw, Kazuhiro Hada,
Evanthia Hatziminaoglou, Richard Hills, Michiel Hogerheijde, David Hughes, Liz
Humphreys, Violette Impellizzeri, Michael Kramer, Thomas Krichbaum, Robert
Laing, Torsten Löhne, Vincenzo Mainieri, Ivan Marti-Vidal, Andrea Merloni,
Stefanie Mühle, Cornelia Müller, Eoin Murphy, Tom Muxlow, Monica Orienti,
Gabriele Ponti, Almudena Prieto, Jörg Rachen, Suzanna Randall, Anita Richards,
Jerome Rodriguez, Eduardo Ros, Anthony Rushton, Sandra Savaglio, Robert Schulz,
Gabriele Surcis, Leonardo Testi, Huib-Jan van Langevelde, David Wilman, Anton
Zensus, Martin Zwaan
Scientific
Organizing Committee (SOC)
Robert Laing – European
Southern Observatory (Co-chair)
Heino Falcke – Radboud
University, Nijmegen, & ASTRON, The Netherlands (Co-chair)
Anton Zensus – Radionet,
MPIfR Bonn, Germany
Leonardo Testi – European
Southern Observatory
Michael Bremer – IRAM, France
Huib van Langevelde – JIVE, The
Netherlands
Thomas Krichbaum – MPIfR Bonn,
Germany
Alain Baudry – Univ.
Bordeaux, France, & European ALMA Project Office, ESO
John Conway – Onsla Space Observatory, Sweden
Author: Heino
Falcke, Dept.
Astrophysics, Radboud University, Nijmegen. Updated: Tuesday, July 10, 2012