An international workshop on High Energy Blazar Astronomy will be organized in Turku, Finland, to mark the 50th anniversary of Tuorla Observatory. The meeting will be held just before the midsummer festivities in Finland, between 17-21 June 2002. The participants will thus have the opportunity to enjoy the Midnight Sun and the pleasant summer weather in Turku, or elsewhere in Finland.
The meeting will be held at the Countryside College of Southwestern Finland at Tuorla, adjacent to Tuorla Observatory and 12 kilometres from the centre of Turku. The meeting will consist of invited and contributed talks and posters. In order to have a workshop-type meeting with plenty of time for discussions, the number of participants will be limited to about 80. Preference will be given to people who have preregistered, and contribute either a talk or a poster. All the contributions will be published in the conference Proceedings.
We have reserved rooms in hotels in Turku city and at the Tuorla Hostel for the participants. We will provide daily transportation from Turku hotels to the meeting place. Turku can be reached by plane, train or bus from Helsinki. There are also some direct international flights to Turku, and ferry connections from Stockholm.
If you plan to attend the workshop, or wish to receive more information of the meeting, please fill the preregistration form. The deadline for preregistration is 31 December 2001. A Second Announcement will be circulated in February 2002.
List of Topics
Our understanding of the high energy phenomena in active galaxies has been revolutionized during the last ten years, based on data provided by the Compton gamma-ray satellite and X-ray missions such as ROSAT, ASCA, RXTE, BeppoSAX, Chandra and XMM-Newton. The ground-based TeV observations have opened a window to the very highest energies. We believe this to be a perfect time to summarize what we have learned so far, and what are the most important open questions to be adressed with the new instruments such as the ESA Cornerstone mission INTEGRAL, the Italian gamma-ray satellite AGILE, and the next generation TeV telescopes.
The main topics of the workshop will be:
observations from optical/UV to X-, gamma- and TeV radiation
new instruments and satellites for observing high energy phenomena
connections between different wavelength regimes and between high and low energy phenomena
connections to host galaxies and environments
relativistic particle acceleration and emission mechanisms for high energy radiation
energy generation and conversion close to the black hole and in the jet
physics of relativistic flows and shocks
relationships between blazars and less energetic sources; unification schemes
Invited Speakers (confirmed)
Thierry Courvoisier (Geneve); Renato Falomo (Padova); Eckart Lorentz (Munich); Alan Marscher (Boston); Martin Pohl (Bochum); Elena Pian (Trieste); Stefano Vercellone (Milano); Stefan Wagner (Heidelberg).
The Scientific Organizing Committee
E. Valtaoja (Turku; Chairman); T. Courvoisier (Geneve); A. Marscher (Boston); E. Pian (Trieste);
J. Poutanen (Oulu); A. Sillanpää (Turku); L. Takalo (Turku); S. Wagner (Heidelberg)
The Local Organizing Committee
L. Takalo (Chairman); M. Domander, M. Lainela, K. Nilsson, S. Reinikainen, T. Savolainen, A. Sillanpää, R. Vainio, E. Valtaoja
CONTACT ADDRESS:
L. O. Takalo
Tuorla Observatory
Väisäläntie 20, FIN-21500 Piikkiö, Finland
phone: +358-2-2744258
fax: +358-2-2433767
e-mail: takalo@astro.utu.fi
