Introduction

Milky Way IR Spitzer

Dense stellar systems such as galactic nuclei and massive stellar clusters, like globular or starburst clusters are unique laboratories for astrophysics. The high stellar densities that are found in their centers are at least a million times higher than in the solar neighbourhood. Therefore, the interaction among stars plays a dominant role in the global evolution of such systems. These systems are the breeding grounds of stellar collisions and of tidal disruptions of stars. In galactic nuclei, such processes may contribute significantly to the mass of the central massive black-hole. Tidal disruptions trigger phases of bright accretion that may reveal the presence of a MBH in an otherwise quiescent, possibly very distant, galaxy, with important implications for extragalactic UV/X-ray astronomy. Also, the formation of compact object binaries is a very promising source of gravitational radiation for ground- and future space-based detectors. The complexity of these systems is such that, in spite of the huge theoretical and numerical efforts, there are still a large number of open key questions. Factors such as great distance, high extinction, extreme stellar crowding, or establishing an accurate astrometric reference frame can make observations of these targets extremely challenging. The precise astrometric observations that we will be able to make in the near future in our own galaxy of stars and their motions contain crucial information on the star formation history, the origin, and the evolution of the Milky Way, its nucleus and the globular clusters. Since most stars form in clusters, we can use observations of individual stars to constrain models of the building blocks of the stellar populations in galaxies. In order to develop a single narrative of the formation of galaxies such as the Milky Way and to understand the intricate dynamics of dense clusters, it is important for theorists, observers, and people working on astrophysical simulations to work together to develop strategies to piece together this picture.

Workshop description

The Galactic Center

The proposed workshop will bring together experts in stellar dynamics, astrometry, radio, optical and X-ray observations, numerical modeling of dense stellar systems and also gravitational wave science in order to promote collaborations between these groups. We believe that by fostering the communication between these relatively different communities, we will be prepared to optimize and take maximum advantage of the coming observations in the next years. The three-week workshop will have one week with a focus on theoretical astrophysics, more specifically astrodynamics. The main topic of another week will be observations in the whole spectrum: astrometry related to upcoming missions like GAIA and to ground-based facilities, particularly telescopes in the 10m-aperture class and beyond (e.g., VLT, Keck, TMT, E-ELT). Large aperture and wide field 3D spectroscopy from the ground, as well as wide-field imaging at the diffraction limit of large telescopes from the ground will complement GAIA and will be key to understanding the dynamics of extremely crowded and highly extincted regions, such as the nuclear star cluster of the Milky Way or the recently discovered massive young clusters in our Galaxy (e.g. Arches, Quintuplet, Westerlund 1). Another week will be devoted to numerical techniques to simulate galactic nuclei and globular clusters. The intent is to develop strategies and collaborations to better constrain formation and evolutionary models of the Milky Way based on our knowledge of globular clusters and other dense stellar systems such as galactic nuclei and to establish a link with ground-based gravitational wave astronomy, which we believe will play an important role in the upcoming years, when Advanced LIGO and VIRGO are taking data, and further in the future, when a LISA-like mission detects the capture of a compact object by a massive black hole in a galactic center, an extreme-mass ratio inspiral.

How to apply

Milky Way IR Spitzer

Admission to the workshop is granted not by the workshop organizers, but by the Admissions Committee of the Center (with only limited input from the workshop organizers). The Admissions Committee will endeavor to accommodate as many applicants to the workshop as possible, but because of the constraints imposed by the rest of the Aspen Center for Physics program, they may not be able to admit everyone who applies. Note that the Center strongly encourages (and prefers) participation for the full duration of the workshop. As they say: "Short stays are detrimental to the effectiveness of the workshops and are strongly discouraged."

The application is now closed

The Center arranges accommodations in apartments (with kitchens) and can also arrange for day-care services; such arrangements facilitate participants to attend and bring their families if they wish. For more information about participating in an Aspen Center workshop, see

http://www.aspenphys.org/participant.html

Everyone who wishes to participate in this workshop must apply before January 31, 2012. The Admissions Committee will be in late February and determine the participant list, which will be distributed in March.

List of participants

  • Daniela Alic, Albert Einstein Institute
  • Pau Amaro-Seoane, Albert Einstein Institute
  • Fabio Antonini, Canadian Institute for theoretical Astrophysics
  • Manule Arca Sedda, Dep. of Phys, Sapienza, Univ. of Roma
  • Sambaran Banerjee, Universität Bonn
  • Matthew Benacquista, University of Texas Brownsville
  • Torsten Boeker, ESA
  • Roberto Angelo Capuzzo-Dolcetta, University of Roma La Sapienza
  • Jorge Cuadra, PUC Chile
  • Elena D'Onghia, Harvard University
  • Tuan Do, University of California Irvine
  • Jonathan M. B. Downing, University of Heidelberg
  • Michael Fall, Space Telescope Science Institute
  • Robert Feldmann, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
  • Andreea Font, University Birmingham
  • Stefan Gillessen, MPE
  • Daniel Grin, Inst. for Advanced Study
  • J. Kelly Holley-Bockelmann, Vanderbilt University
  • Sang Chul Kim, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
  • Stefanie Komossa, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy
  • Simos Konstantinidis, Astronomisches Rechen-Institut
  • JMD Kruijssen, Max-Planck Gesellschaft
  • Noam Libeskind, Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam
  • Jessica Lu, Institute for Astronomy
  • Ann-Marie Madigan, Leiden University
  • Gregory David Martinez, University of California Irvine
  • Alessandra Mastrobuono-Battisti, Sapienza University of Rome
  • David Merritt, Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Leonhard Meyer, University of California Los Angeles
  • Marco Montuori, institute for complex systems CNR
  • Jill Naiman, University of California Santa Cruz
  • Shogo Nishiyama, National Astr. Obs. Japan
  • Christoph Olczak, Heidelberg University
  • Thomas Prince, California Institute of Technology
  • Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, University of California Santa Cruz
  • Rainer Schoedel, IAA
  • Anil Seth, University of Utah
  • Mario Spera, Dep. of Phys, Sapienza, Univ. of Roma
  • Rainer Spurzem, National Astronomical Observatories
  • Andrea Stolte, Argelander Institut fuer Astronomie
  • Ladislav Subr, Charles University in Prague
  • Antonella Vallenari, INAF
  • Eugene Vasiliev, Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Sylvana Yelda, University of California Los Angeles

Muppets