SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT
IAU Symposium 342
Perseus in Sicily: from black hole to cluster outskirts
Noto (Italy), 13 – 19 May 2018
WEB AND SOCIAL
https://www.facebook.com/PerseusinSicily/
https://twitter.com/iaus342/
UPCOMING DEADLINES
Abstract submission: February 28th
Regular registration fee: March 15th
Dear colleague,
this is the 2nd announcement for the IAU Symposium #342 “Perseus in Sicily: from black hole to cluster outskirts”.
The meeting will take place in Noto (Sicily, Italy), starting on Sunday, May 13, with a welcome reception, with scientific sessions from Monday 14, till Friday 18, and a possibility for social activities on Saturday, May 19.
In this announcement we remind of the upcoming deadlines for abstract submission (February 28) and regular registration fee (March 15), with details about how to start planning your trip. Further details will be available on our website, on social media, and in our final announcement that will circulate in April.
SCIENCE RATIONALE
The Perseus cluster has recently been the stage of ground-breaking discoveries, from the AGN 3C84 with mm- and space-VLBI and gamma rays, out to the cluster scales, where X-ray observations reveal surprising details about the gas dynamics. The importance and timeliness of discussing these and other topics (see below) is enhanced by the many developments recently achieved also in the fields of theory, numerical simulations, and imaging techniques.
We will gather multi-wavelength observers and theoreticians, experts from the event horizon out to the Megaparsec scales, encouraging interactions and discussion in the beautiful Sicilian city of Noto, a location rich in history, culture, nature, well-being, and science, near to the INAF 32m radio telescope and the CTA-ASTRI prototype.
While the Perseus system is an ideal stage to foster discussion, our interest lies in the physics itself. Therefore, we also encourage abstracts dealing with these topics in other systems.
TOPICS
Supermassive Black Holes and accretion:
Methods to measure BH mass and spin
Images from the event horizon telescope
Hot vs cold accretion, radiatively efficient vs inefficient flows
Jets and outflows (high angular resolution radio observations)
Space VLBI (Radioastron) imaging of the transverse structure
Counterjet feature and constraints on free-free absorption and orientation parameters
Emission from other low-luminosity AGN
Jets and outflows (high energy and VHE observations)
Site of HE and VHE emission in blazars
Leptonic vs hadronic processes
IC 310 and black hole lightning
Jets and outflows (theory and simulations)
Production mechanism
MHD processes & particle acceleration
Numerical simulations of jets and outflows
Cluster core (thermal)
Hitomi X-ray high resolution spectroscopy
High angular resolution X-ray observations
Cold molecular gas filaments in Perseus and other clusters
Cluster core (non thermal)
Radio bubbles, haloes, and mini-haloes
Polarization and rotation measure
Low radio frequency observations
Cluster (theory and simulations)
Role of shocks and turbulence
Energy transport
Mergers vs relaxed clusters
Feedback
Jet-ISM interaction
Black hole-galaxy-cluster co-evolution
Heating and cooling
CONFIRMED INVITED SPEAKERS
Felix Aharonian
Kazunori Akiyama
Michiel Brentjens
Eugene Churazov
Francoise Combes
Denise Gabuzda
Karl Gebhardt
Marie-Lou Gendron-Marsolais
Gabriele Giovannini
Federica Govoni
Matteo Guainazzi
Melanie Johnston-Hollitt
Ruta Kale
Elina Lindfors
Anna Lia Longinotti
Monika Moscibrodzka
Monica Orienti
Chris Reynolds
Jeremy Sanders
Debora Sijacki
Aurora Simionescu
Taka Tamura
Alexander Tchekhovskoy
Irina Zhuravleva
REGISTRATION FEE
There is a registration fee of 280 EUR until the regular registration deadline of March 15. After March 15, the late registration fee will be 350 EUR. The registration fee includes a welcome cocktail on May 13, all lunches and coffee breaks, the social dinner, transportation from/to Catania International airport on the day before the start and the one after the end of the symposium, the conference package, and an electronic copy of the proceedings.
TRAVEL AND VENUE
The nearest airport to Noto is Catania International Airport, with good connections to hubs such as Amsterdam, Munich, Rome. From Catania Airport to Noto, it is about an hour drive on highway, and we will provide shuttle transportation free of cost for all participants on the day before and the one after the symposium. A bus service is also available and takes about 1.5 hours between Catania airport and Noto.
The symposium will take place in Grand Hotel Sofia just outside historic downtown Noto, except for the first day when we will be hosted by the Tina di Lorenzo Theatre.
ACCOMMODATION AND ROOM SHARING
We expect that about 60 participants could be also lodged at Grand Hotel Sofia. For other participants, we have arranged accommodation either downtown Noto in smaller hotels and b&b’s, or in the nearby village of Noto Marina (5km distance, just on the sea coast; shuttle to/from conference venue available). Please see our accommodation page for details on the reservation process. Note that the week of the symposium is considered high season in Noto because of the “Infiorata” (see below), so even if that will not impact accommodation costs (we secured good rates), we expect that it will be very hard to find a last minute accommodation: make sure to plan your travel and book your room as soon as possible!
If you are interested in sharing a room to reduce the cost of your accommodation, please post your interest on our Facebook page indicating the dates of your stay, your preferred accommodation (Sofia, Eloro, or other), and the gender of your roommate.
THE “INFIORATA” AND OTHER SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
Each year, the third Sunday in May (the weekend following our symposium), a cascade of thousands of flowers, expertly arranged on the road, making the vision of baroque city full of scents and colours: this event is one of the best on the island of Sicily. This event attracts a large crowd, which means that depending on your taste you may want to extend your visit for a couple of days to enjoy the atmosphere of the celebration, or that you should plan to have your bags ready to leave just after the concluding remarks on Friday if you want to avoid the confusion.
We are planning a half day off on Wednesday afternoon for an excursion, and additional tours will be organised on Saturday. Please keep an eye on our next announcement and on our web page for the social activity information.
We look forward to meeting you all in Noto!