Invited Plenary Speakers:
Dr. Volker Bothmer, University of Goettingen, Germany
"Heliophysics and Space Weather – Challenges and Perspectives"
The current fleet of solar, heliospheric, geospace, and planetary spacecraft, such as SOHO, ACE, STEREO, SDO or MMS amongst others, have provided unprecedented new data over the past decades on the scientific processes governing the physics of our solar system. The simultaneous operations are today referred to as the “Heliophysics System Observatory”, with new missions such as Solar Probe Plus and Solar Orbiter being just around the corner. It appears thus timely to review the major breakthroughs in our understanding of the physics of the dynamic solar corona, heliosphere and space weather. Moreover, what are the challenges and perspectives for the next years, i.e., how do we interface space and ground based data best, what are our current major knowledge gaps, how do we place space weather into operations, what insights will the new missions offer, and finally of course, what are the steps to new knowledge?
Prof. Andreas Burkert , Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
"The dynamics of high-redshift star-forming galaxies, driven by disk instabilities"
The redshift two Universe ist one of the most interesting epochs of galaxy evolution. It is the era with the peak of the cosmic star formation rate. Between redshift 3 and 1 the total stellar mass density in galaxies increased from 15% to 70%. It is also the time of rapid galaxy assembly and the epoch where galaxy morphology was determined. I will summarize recent observations of the SINS survey, a Spectroscopic Imaging survey of z=2 galaxies in the near infrared with the ESO SINFONI spectrograph. This survey has opened a fascinating window into early galaxy evolution. The SINS data show a diversity of galactic systems at redshift 2 with physical properties that are unparalleled in the z=0 Universe. Gas-rich, extended, fast rotating and highly turbulent disks have been found with star formation rates that are a factor of 10 to 100 larger than in present-day Milky-Way type galaxies. Kpc-sized, massive gas clumps dominate the appearance of these galaxies. These giant clumps are considered to represent the progenitors of present-day globular clusters. They could provide the seeds for supermassive black holes and they might lead to the formation of young bulges in the centers of their galaxies. These fascinating and puzzling observations will be confronted with theoretical ideas and numerical simulations of gas-rich galactic disk evolution. I will argue that the high-redshift galaxies like present-day disks, are in a self-organized equilibrium state with their observed extreme properties emerging naturally from self-regulated galactic evolution, controlled by gas inflow from the cosmic web and regulated by gravitational disk instability and stellar feedback.
Prof. Joan Sola, University of Barcelona, Spain
"Is the 100 years old cosmological constant in Einstein's equations really constant? Maybe not!"
In this talk I will assess the possibility that a rigid cosmological constant, Λ, and hence the traditional concordance ΛCDM model of cosmology, might not be the best phenomenological description of the current cosmological data. In a series of recent works we find that a large class of dynamical vacuum models (DVMs), whose vacuum energy density consists of a nonvanishing constant term and a series of powers of the Hubble rate, provides a substantially better phenomenological account of the overall SNIa+BAO+H(z)+LSS+CMB cosmological observations. The main models within the class of DVMs appear significantly much more favored than the ΛCDM, at an unprecedented confidence level of roughly 4σ. If the results presented here would be reconfirmed in the light of future investigations, the hundred years hitherto rigid status of the ``cosmological constant'', in its traditionally accepted role for the optimal description of the cosmological data, would be seriously disputable.
Dr. Iason Spyromilio, ESO, Germany
"Supernova 1987A at 30"
Supernova 1987A exploded 30 years ago this year. Observations of this remarkable object have revolutionised the astronomy of
supernovae but also have had profound implications in many other fields. A brief overview of some important results from the
past shall be made as well as an update on the most exciting results from ALMA, VLT and HST.
Dr. Patricio Rojo
This talk presents an overview of the current status of the Chilean Astronomical community. The extremely dry conditions of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile has made it, arguably, the best place on Earth for ground-based Astronomical facilities. Over 70% of the optical-to-mm photons collected for ground-based astronomy will be received by telescopes in Chile once the new generation of telescopes finishes their construction during the next decade. The XXI century is thus witnessing an unprecedented growth of the Chilean astronomical community creating clear opportunities as well as unique challenges. The observatories in the Atacama desert, the Chilean institutions, and their main research areas will be briefly discussed, attempting to highlight collaboration opportunities.