Astro-GRMallorca
(click on the ensaïmada!)

Low-frequency gravitational-wave astrophysics

(LISA) Astro-GR - Past, present and future!

Once upon a time, there was a huge, charming and adorable planned space interferometer named "LISA". One sad, rainy day, a very bad and evil tight fiscal situation put LISA to sleep.

If I was to plagiarize Charles' narrative, I would write something like...

At the christening of a long-wished-for gravitational wave interferometer, science agencies invited as godmothers offered gifts, such as resolution, science case, and new discoveries. However, as her gift a wicked tight fiscal situation who had been overlooked placed the interferometer under an enchantment, saying that, on reaching adulthood, she would prick her finger on the spindle of the Spinning Economic Crisis of Death and die. However, one last fairy has yet to give her gift. She partially reverses the wicked tight fiscal situation's curse, proclaiming that the princess-interferometer will instead fall into a deep sleep for a long time. The king forbade spinning on distaff or spindle, or the possession of one, upon pain of death, throughout the kingdom, but all in vain. When the princess was a woman she chanced to come upon an old woman, who was really the wicked tight fiscal situation in disguise, in a tower of the castle, who was spinning. The Princess asked to try the unfamiliar task and the inevitable happened. The wicked tight fiscal situation's curse was fulfilled.


(adapted text and picture shamelessly stolen from the wikipedia)

Then one of us got the question:

"Hey, Pau, are you going to cancel that series of meetings you organise?"

The fact is that the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) retrieves more than 2500 papers related to LISA... This is ringing a bell somehow

And, as you probably have already read, the "European Space Agency goes it alone on next generation space mission"
The European Space Agency has postponed its selection of a large space mission to launch in the 2020-2021 timeframe, following advice from NASA that the US is unlikely to be able to contribute its share of funding to the winning selection.


UPDATE (July 22nd, 2011):

We have now an announcement at the Brownbag URL which we reproduce here for your convenience:

A (sticky) note from the editors: Due to the recent adjustment in how L-class missions within the Cosmic Vision framework are chosen, ESA is currently investigating a design for a European-led variant of LISA that can be launched before 2022. After studying several configurations, a new baseline has been identified that will be refined in the coming month with the help of European industry. The new baseline simplifies the design of LISA, reducing the distance between the satellites and employing only four instead of previously six laser links. The science team and a science task force, composed of members of the gravitational wave and astrophysics communities in both Europe and the US, have assessed the scientific validity of the new baseline for the fields of physics, astrophysics and cosmology and have shown that the new configuration is very promising regarding sources such as galactic binaries, (super)massive black hole and extreme mass ratio inspirals. Over the next few months, this work will continue until we have a finalised mission proposal by the fall of 2011. The near future is very bright for astrophysics and cosmology using observations of gravitational waves in space.

Therefore, we deem this meeting to be very timely to discuss about space-based GW interferometry in the context of the envisioned ESA mission, and the science that we will be able to do with it


Introduction : Astro-GR@Mallorca

We are planning a 5 day meeting from Monday 5th to Friday September 9th 2011 on GW sources.

The focus of this informal (*) meeting will be all GW sources and their (potential!) electromagnetic signatures. This meeting will be run in the style of all previous Astro-GR meetings, with presentations in the morning and discussion/working groups in the afternoon. This format has worked very well in the past, so we have decided to use it again for this meeting. Please take a look to this link to get an impression of the meeting:

http://www.aei.mpg.de/~pau/astro_gr.html


A key aim of the Astro-GR meetings is to foster and develop new collaborative ventures, as well as to strengthen existing ones, within the different communities (astrophysics, data analysis, general relativity and numerical relativity).

(*) By "informal" we mean no registration fee, poster presentation, or proceedings. We are also unable to provide financial assistance to participants for the meeting.


Topics

Observations of GW sources in the MilliHertz-Hertz range could provide invaluable information on galaxy formation models with the coalescence of massive black holes, while captures of small compact objects by them will give us an exquisite information on the strong field regime around a Kerr black hole.

As a LISA-type mission will be a precision tool is determining when a possible merger may take place, it is important that the astrophysical and data analysis communities work hand in hand. With this in mind, the main topics of interest for the meeting will be
  • Astrophysical modelling of super- and massive black hole coalescences (ranging from 103 to 109 M⊙) - yes, this also involves PTA (!)
  • Astrophysical modelling of small compact objects by massive black holes (aka "EMRIs")
  • Observations of our own Galactic Center (SgrA*)
  • Modelling of strong field sources within General Relativity
  • Data analysis of the sources
  • Early warning of possible mergers either from the data analysis or by EM detection
  • Observations of neutron star binaries leading up to coalescence for long periods of time
  • Measuring spin-down of individual pulsars
  • Coincidence measurements with ground-based detectors
Important:

We would like to remind keynote speakers that, as not all participants will be experts in their respective field, the keynote talks should be more of an overview of the current status of the particular research domain. We suggest that speakers leave time for discussion and if possible, we encourage speakers to give "black-board" presentations. While in principle, most of the presentations are by means of invitation, we also encourage everyone who wants to present their work during the workshop in a prepared talk to let us know before arriving here.

Registration and fee

PLEASE NOTE THAT REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED. WE WILL ADD YOUR NAME TO A WAITING LIST AND WILL LET YOU KNOW ASAP

The format and venue for Astro-GR@Mallorca will limit the number of attendees. We thus kindly ask every participant to register as soon as s/he makes travel arrangements and to avoid disappointment. In keeping with the spirit of an informal workshop, there will be no registration fee.

The number of slots will be very limited, and they will be chosen by the organizers on the basis of their relevance to the main focus and goal of this meeting.


First Name
Last Name
Home Institution
Email Address
Telephone

Arrival / Departure (if known, otherwise you can submit them later)
Arrival day September 2011
Departure day September 2011

Presentation
Title
Summary

Comments
Are you vegetarian?
Fee: To bring yourself to the meeting


We care about your health, Flashers!

Astro-GR is a proud member of the The Flasher Protective League, a charitable nonprofit, independent of any government support, which serves the overstressed, overextended, fatigued Flashers.

Dear flashers, we do not want you to suffer from rushing from one point of the globe to the other just for just giving one talk. Therefore, even if we think your talk would be extremely valuable, we recommend that you take it easy and think it well before coming for just one or two days.

The main goal of this meeting is not to give talks, but to interact with people as much as possible.

And it's not good for your health, either...

Now a bit more seriously: This meeting is meant to discuss and talk, not to give a presentation about your results. The talks are there only to give the public a general background on astrophysics, relativity and data analysis to be able to discuss all together.

Venue and other information

The meeting will take place at the Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB), in la Palma de Mallorca Palma
, which is El Toro, Calvià
a nice corner of Spain.

Palma has excellent air communications with mainland Spain, the main European cities and the rest of the world. "Son Sant Joan" international airport lies 8 kilometers east of Palma and is the main access to the island.

How to move in the campus and how to get to the conference rooms (print this one out)

How to access the wifi

How to arrive to and depart from the airport:

UIB Campus

The campus is 7.5 km away from Palma, on the road to Valldemossa. To get there from the city center, you have two options:

OPTION 1: Subway on Plaza España frequency: 15 minutes, commuting to campus: 13 minutes). From the metro station you can take a circular bus (free) which runs through the campus every 15 minutes. This is the easiest way to go to the Campus.

OPTION 2: You can take bus 19 at any of its stops in Palma (Frequency: 15 minutes, time to UIB campus: 30 minutes from Plaza de España). EMT-Palma line 19

This is a map to the UIB campus

Lodging

We have reserved a number of rooms at special rates in some very convenient hotels in the city center with the travel agency DIPLOMATIC SERVICES. These are:

We kindly ask to fill in the accommodation form and return it no later than August 12th 2011 by Fax (+ 34-971.73.85.12) or e-mail to: esperanza --at-- diplomatic-services.com.

Any change or hotel cancellation must be addressed to Ms. Escandell, not to the hotel:

Ms. Esperanza Escandell
Tel.: +34-971.22.10.04
Fax: + 34-971.73.85.12
e-mail: esperanza --at-- diplomatic-services.com

Confirmed participants:

Name (Institute, Place, Interest*) email (<-at-> =@)

Sarp Akcay (University of Southampton) sa18g09<-at->soton.ac.uk,

Tal Alexander (Weizmann Institute of Science) tal.alexander<-at->weizmann.ac.il,

Daniela Alic (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics) alda<-at->aei.mpg.de,

Pau Amaro-Seoane (AEI) pau<-at->aei.mpg.de,

Stanislav Babak (AEI) stba<-at->aei.mpg.de,

Leor Barack (University of Southampton) leor<-at->soton.ac.uk,

Matthew Benacquista (University of Texas at Brownsville) Benacquista<-at->Phys.utb.edu,

Pierre Binetruy (APC, Paris) binetruy<-at->apc.univ-paris7.fr,

Tamara Bogdanović (University of Maryland) tamarab<-at->astro.umd.edu,

Juan Calderon Bustillo (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela) juan.calderon<-at->rai.usc.es,

Carles Bona Garcia (Universitat Illes Balears) cbona<-at->uib.es,

Patrick Brem (Astronomisches Rechen Institut, Un. Heidelberg) pbrem<-at->ari.uni-heidelberg.de,

Jordi Burguet Castell (UIB) jordi.burguet.castell<-at->gmail.com,

Salvatore Capozziello (Universita' di Napoli "Federico II") capozziello<-at->na.infn.it,

Mariafelicia De Laurentis (Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, Uni. di Napoli "Federico II") felicia<-at->na.infn.it,

Priscilla Cañizares (Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC)) pcm<-at->ieec.uab.es,

Jerome Carre (APC) carre<-at->apc.univ-paris7.fr,

Monica Colpi (Dep. of Physics, Uni. of Milano Bicocca) colpi<-at->mib.infn.it,

Neil Cornish (Montana State University) cornish<-at->physics.montana.edu,

Massimo Dotti (Universita` di Milano Bicocca) mdotti<-at->mpa-garching.mpg.de,

Domenec Espriu (Universitat de Barcelona) espriu<-at->icc.ub.edu,

Sam Finn (Penn State) lsfinn<-at->psu.edu,

Jose A. Font (University of Valencia) j.antonio.font<-at->uv.es,

Zsolt Frei (Eotvos University, Budapest) frei<-at->alcyone.elte.hu,

Ryuichi Fujita (Raman Research Institute, India and UIB) draone<-at->rri.res.in,

Jonathan Gair (Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK) jgair<-at->ast.cam.ac.uk,

Stefan Gillessen (Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik) ste<-at->mpe.mpg.de,

Kazuhiro Hayama (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) kazuhiro.hayama<-at->gmail.com,

Sascha Husa (UIB) sascha.husa<-at->uib.es,

Cedric Huwyler (University of Zurich) chuwyler<-at->physik.uzh.ch,

Oliver Jennrich (ESA) oliver.jennrich<-at->esa.int,

Philippe Jetzer (University of Zurich) jetzer<-at->physik.uzh.ch,

Nathan Johnson-McDaniel (Penn State) nathanjm<-at->gravity.psu.edu,

Jafar Khodagholizadeh (Tarbiat Modares University ) j.gholizadeh<-at->modares.ac.ir,

Symeon Konstantinidis (Albert Einstein Institute) simos<-at->aei.mpg.de,

Gabor Kupi (Weizmann Institute of Science) gabor.kupi<-at->weizmann.ac.il,

Meagan Lang (Vanderbilt University) meagan.m.lang<-at->vanderbilt.edu,

Tyson Littenberg (University of Maryland / NASA GSFC) tyson.b.littenberg<-at->nasa.gov,

Maxim Lyutikov (Purdue University) lyutikov<-at->purdue.edu,

Umberto Maio (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics) umaio<-at->mpe.mpg.de,

Lucio Mayer (University of Zurich) lmayer<-at->physik.unizh.ch,

Sean McWilliams (Columbia University / Princeton University) sean<-at->astro.columbia.edu,

Cole Miller (University of Maryland) miller<-at->astro.umd.edu,

Pedro Montero (Max-Planck for Astrophysics) montero<-at->mpa-garching.mpg.de,

Carmen Montuori (University of Como) carmen.montuori<-at->uninsubria.it,

Paolo Pani (CENTRA - Instituto Superior Tecnico (Lisbon)) paolo.pani<-at->ist.utl.pt,

Gabe Perez-Giz (NYU center for cosmology and particle physics) gabe<-at->phys.columbia.edu,

Antoine Petiteau (AEI-Potsdam , APC-Paris ) Antoine.Petiteau<-at->aei.mpg.de,

Eduardo Portero (APC-Paris) porter<-at->apc.univ-paris7.fr,

Michael Puerrer (University of Vienna) Michael.Puerrer<-at->univie.ac.at,

Daniel Puigdomenech (Universitat de Barcelona) puigdomenech<-at->ub.edu,

Michele Punturo (INFN-Perugia and EGO) michele.punturo<-at->pg.infn.it,

Pablo Antonio Rosado Gonzalez (Albert Einstein Institut Hannover) pablo.rosado<-at->aei.mpg.de,

Constanze Rödig (AEI) croedig<-at->aei.mpg.de,

Milton Ruiz (universitat de les illes balears) milton.ruiz<-at->uib.es,

Nadeen Sabha (I.Physikalisches Institut, University of Cologne) sabha<-at->ph1.uni-koeln.de,

Motoyuki Saijo (Rikkyo University, Japan) saijo<-at->rikkyo.ac.jp,

Bangalore Sathyaprakash (Cardiff University) B.Sathyaprakash<-at->astro.cf.ac.uk,

Alberto Sesana (Albert Einstein Institute) alberto.sesana<-at->aei.mpg.de,

Abhay Shah (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee / Weizmann Institute of Science) abhaygshah<-at->gmail.com,

Sweta Shah (Radboud University) s.shah<-at->astro.ru.nl,

Alicia Sintes (UIB) alicia.sintes<-at->uib.es,

Carlos F. Sopuerta (ICE) sopuerta<-at->ice.cat,

Nicholas Stone (Harvard University) nstone<-at->cfa.harvard.edu,

Coaimo Stornaiolo (INFN -- Sezione di Napol) cosmo<-at->na.infn.it,

Jonathan Thornburg (Indiana University, Astronomy Dept and IUCSS) jthorn<-at->astro.indiana.edu,

Alexandre Le Tiec (University of Maryland) letiec<-at->umd.edu,

Michele Vallisneri (JPL) Vallis<-at->Vallis.org,

Alex Vano-Vinuales (UIB) alex.vano<-at->uib.es,

Niels Warburton (University of Southampton) n.warburton<-at->soton.ac.uk,

Barry Wardell (Albert Einstein Institute) barry.wardell<-at->aei.mpg.de,

Ron Wiltshire (University of Glamorgan, UK) rjwiltsh<-at->glam.ac.uk,

Nicolas Yunes (MIT) nyunes<-at->space.mit.edu,

Mohammad Zamaninasab (MPIfR) zamani<-at->mpifr.de

Astro-GR@Mallorca Questions

We have gathered a list of questions relevant to the meeting and that we will address and work out in the satellite sessions, when we make the group breakout. You can download the list of questions from here, in "portable data file" format (pdf)