Pau Amaro-Seoane * LISA Astro-GR@Como *

LISA Astro-GR@ComoMilano
(all sources)

Introduction

Monica Colpi (Milano Bicocca), Francesco Haardt (Insubria) and Pau Amaro-Seoane (Albert Einstein-Institut)
are planning a 3-day informal meeting on:

Astrophysics of LISA gravitational wave sources

to be held at the Centro di Cultura Scientifica Alessandro Volta (Como) from Wednesday 6th to Friday, February 8th 2008

"Informal" means here no registration fee, nor poster presentation, nor proceedings. We will have a small number of review talks and slots for
other presentations (especially from PhD students and postdocs).

The meeting is thought to be run in the style of Aspen/ITP/Newton Institute/Modest meetings, with plenty of time for discussions, just as
LISA Astro-GR@AEI was run last year (2006) at the AEI

The workshop will bring together astrophysicists, cosmologists, relativists and other gravitational wave scientists, with the goal of building new collaborative relationships -as well as strengthening existing ones- focused on the interpretation of gravitational wave observations as a tool of astronomical discovery and a probe of the fundamental physics of gravity.

The purpose of this year's meeting are strong interaction in the short period of time available, to highlight from as many perspectives as possible the as-yet unsolved problems, progress in solving them and the development of new areas of inquiry

The gathering of astrophysicists, cosmologists and relativists -- unfortunately not as common as it ought to be -- will, we hope, intensify our efforts, fertilize our imaginations, and broaden our perspectives.

Rationale and Topics

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) promises to open a completely new window into the heart of the most energetic processes in the universe, with consequences fundamental to both physics and astrophysics. During its proposed five-year mission, LISA is expected to detect gravitational waves from the coalescence of massive black holes in galaxies at cosmological distances and from stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars as they plunge onto massive black holes in nearby galaxies.

Studying the gravitational waveforms will allow scientists to trace the cosmic growth of massive black holes in the evolving environment of galaxy formation, providing their census through accurate mass and spin determinations. Extreme mass-ratio events involving compact objects around massive black holes will allow us to test the cosmic censorship conjecture, the no--hair theorem and possible deviations from Einstein's theory of gravity.

The workshop will focus on LISA's role in

Astrophysical modelling of GW sources: from supermassive binary black holes to extreme and intermediate--mass ratio inspirals
Binary black holes and the cosmic assembly of galaxies
Mass, spin and kick: the black hole cosmic census
General Relativity

Again, and following the philosophy of last year, we suggest leaving plenty of room for discussions!

The workshop is particularly timely. LISA is an extraordinarily original and technically bold mission concept that is now in the priority list of NASA's Beyond Einstein Program. In addition, the ESA-NASA LISA Pathfinder mission, scheduled for late 2009, is at the forefront of current technological development.

Registration, fee and support

The format and venue for LISA Astro-GR@Como will limit the number of attendees to 50. We thus kindly ask every participant to register as soon as s/he makes travel arrangements to avoid disappointment.

In keeping with the spirit of an informal workshop, there will be no registration fee. We have limited financial assistance available, on an individual case basis.

The aim of this meeting is not the talks, but the discussion.

The meeting will have a limited number of talks following the reviews, organised to trigger fruitful discussions. Tell us whether you would like to give a talk, but please do not be disappointed if you don't get a slot! We encourage you to participate actively in the discussion session.

To register just send an e-mail to Pau (Pau.Amaro-Seoane AT aei.mpg.de) and to Monica (colpi AT mib.infn.it) with the followings details:

Name + Surname
Institute
Area of interest for the purposes of this meeting
Would you like to give a talk? (work in progress also fine)
Do you need financial support from us?

Venue and accommodation (please note that some of the the links should display a popping-up picture. It works fine on firefox, windows IE, konqueror etc etc but not on safari)

The meeting will take place at the Centro di Cultura Scientifica Alessandro Volta (map), a "non-profit organization, incorporated in 1983, aimed at promoting scientific research", at Sala PastaSala Pasta .
This conference room, which belongs to the Società del Casino ( one shot, Società del Casino another one Società del Casino ) has wireless connection and all necessary facilities. On the web site of the Centro di Cultura (www.centrovolta.it/LisaAstro-GR_2008) you will find soon all necessary information for the venue; you'll also find an accommodation form.

Confirmed participants : 48
Name (Institute, Place, Interest*) email (<-at-> =@)

*Astro=Astrophysics and/or Cosmology
GR=General Relativity

Tal Alexander (Weizmann Inst., Astro) tal.alexander<-at->weizmann.ac.il,

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

Michele Armano (European Space Agency, GR, Astro) marmano<-at->rssd.esa.int,

Stas Babak (AEI, Potsdam, GR) stba<-at->aei.mpg.de,

Ingo Berentzen (ARI, Heidelberg, Astro) iberent<-at->ari.uni-heidelberg.de,

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

Enrico Barausse (SISSA, GR) barausse<-at->sissa.it

Matthew Benacquista (Center for GW Astronomy, Brownsville, Astro) benacquista<-at->phys.utb.edu,

Tamara Bogdanovic (UMD, Maryland, Astro) tamarab<-at->astro.umd.edu,

Graziella Branduardi-Raymont (Uni. College London, Mullard Space Sc. Lab., Astro) gbr<-at->mssl.ucl.ac.uk,

Silke Britzen (MPIfR Bonn, Astro) p660sil<-at->mpifr-bonn.mpg.de,

Simone Callegari (Inst. Th. Physics, Zurich, Astro) callegar<-at->physik.unizh.ch,

Massimo Cerdonio (INFN, Padova, Astro) cerdonio<-at->pd.infn.it,

Monica Colpi (Dipart. di Fisica G. Occhialini, Astro) colpi<-at->mib.infn.it,

Jim Dale (Lund Obs., Astro) jim<-at->astro.lu.se,

Melvyn B. Davies (Lund Obs., Astro) mbd<-at->astro.lu.se,

Bernadetta Devecchi (Dip. Fisica Occhialini, Uni. Milano, Astro) Bernadetta.Devecchi<-at->mib.infn.it,

Massimo Dotti (Michigan, Astro) Massimo.Dotti<-at->mib.infn.it,

Jonathan Downing (ARI, Heidelberg, Astro) downin<-at->ari.uni-heidelberg.de,

Marc Freitag (IoA, Cambridge, UK, Astro) freitag<-at->ast.cam.ac.uk,

Jonathan Gair (IoA, Cambridge, UK, GR) jrg23<-at->cam.ac.uk,

Francesco Haardt (Insubria, Astro) Francesco.Haardt<-at->uninsubria.it,

Kelly Holley-Bockelmann (Vanderbilt Uni., Astro) k.holley<-at->vanderbilt.edu,

José Jaramillo (IAA Andalucía, GR) jarama<-at->iaa.es,

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

Philippe Jetzer (Inst. Th. Physics, Zurich, Astro) jetzer<-at->iftp.uzh.ch,

Antoine Klein (Inst. Th. Physics, Zurich, GR) aklein<-at->physik.uzh.ch,

Nadia Kudryavtseva (MPIfr, Bonn, Astro) nadia<-at->mpifr-bonn.mpg.de,

Lucio Mayer (ETHZ, Zurich, Astro) lucio<-at->phys.ethz.ch,

Miroslav Micic (Vanderbilt Uni., Astro) miroslav.z.micic<-at->vanderbilt.edu,

Cole Miller (UMD, Astro) miller<-at->astro.umd.edu,

Kenneth Moody (Penn State Uni., Astro) moody<-at->astro.psu.edu,

Joachim Naef (Inst. Th. Physics, Zurich, GR) naef<-at->physik.unizh.ch,

Albino Perego ((Dip. Fisica Occhialini, Uni. Milano, GR) Albino.Perego<-at->mib.infn.it,

Ed Porter (AEI, GR) ed.porter<-at->aei.mpg.de,

Miguel Preto (ARI, Heidelberg, Astro) miguelp<-at->ari.uni-heidelberg.de,

Tahseen Rashid (Found. of Tech. Education, Baghdad, Astro) tahseen_rashid<-at->yahoo.com,

Luciano Rezzolla (AEI, GR, Astro) rezzolla<-at->aei.mpg.de,

Ashley J. Ruiter (New Mexico State Uni., Astro) aruiter<-at->nmsu.edu,

Ruben Salvaterra (Milano Bicocca, Astro) salvaterra<-at->mib.infn.it,

Mauro Sereno (Inst. Th. Physics, Zurich, GR) sereno<-at->physik.unizh.ch,

Bernard Schutz (AEI, GR) schutz<-at->aei.mpg.de,

Alberto Sesana (Penn State, Astro) alberto<-at->gravity.psu.edu,

Carlos F. Sopuerta (ICE-CSIC, IEEC, Astro, GR) sopuerta<-at->ieec.uab.es,

Rainer Spurzem (ARI, Heidelberg, Astro) spurzem<-at->ari.uni-heidelberg.de,

Silvia Toonen (Leiden Obs., Astro) toonen<-at->strw.leidenuniv.nl,

Alberto Vecchio (Uni Birmingham, GR, DA) av<-at->star.sr.bham.ac.uk,

Stefano Vitale (Trento Univ., Astro) vitale<-at->science.unitn.it,

Kinwah Wu (MSSL London, Astro) kw<-at->mssl.ucl.ac.uk,

Introduction | Topics | Registration | Venue | Participants | Programme | Pictures of the meeting