Transient Universe 2006: Popular, Not so Popular & Knowable Unknowns

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kohn Building, UCSB

Monday (March 13, 2006)

All talks are 20 minutes + 10 minutes (for discussion), unless noted otherwise. Extended and meaningful discussion make KITP workshops particularly useful. Chairs are instructed to ensure that the discussion time is preserved.

House Rules: Follow the new Wild West convention: check in your cell phones before entering the auditorium.

0845 Welcome to Santa Barbara (D. Gross)

Session 1: Nearby Galaxy Surveys: Known and Knowable Phase Space (Chair: L. Bildsten)

0900   Transients in the Local Universe: Basic Considerations (S. Kulkarni)
0930   The low luminosity tail of supernovae                  (W. Li)
1000   A review of Nova searches                              (A. Shafter)
1030   COFFEE BREAK

1100   ROTSE Survey for Supernovae & Other transients (E. Rykoff)
1130   Palomar Quest + SNIFS Survey for Supernovae    (G. Aldering)
1200   LUNCH BREAK

Session 2: Stellar Mergers and Large Explosions: Theory & Speculation (Chair: P. Kumar)

1330   Flares and Flashes from GALEX                       (S. Gezari)
1400   Coalescing white dwarfs: EM signatures and Outcomes (E. Phinney)
1430   Flashes from Accreting WDs in New Contexts          (L. Bildsten)
1500   A review of Merging (regular) Stars                 (E. van den Heuvel)
1530   COFFEE BREAK

Session 3: GRB Orphan Afterglows & Related Phenomenon (Chair: C. Fryer)

1600   Orphan Afterglows: Theory & Searches             (U. Nakar)
1630   Search for Fast Optical Transients               (A. Becker)
1700   La Silla & Other Searches for Optical Transients (A. Rau)
1730   END OF DAY ONE

Tuesday (March 14, 2006)

Session 4: Bright Transients & Asteroids (Chair: D. Frail)

0900   Very fast optical transients         (T. Vestrand)
0930   Occulting & other stellar transients (T. Brown)
1000   Very Local Transients                (H. Roe)
1030   COFFEE BREAK

Session 5: Open Ended Searches (Chair: M. Delle Valle)

1100   All Sky Patrols                          (A. Socrates & B. Paczynski)
1130   Palomar Quest Searches                   (S. Djorgovski)
1200   LIGO: Current state and cross searching  (S. Ballmer)
1230   LUNCH

Session 6: Near Future (Chair: S. Yost)

1400   Radio Searches: Decimeter               (G. Bower)
1430   Radio Searches: Decameter               (J. Lazio)
1500   PanStarrs: Killers & Kabooms            (K. Chambers)
1530   COFFEE BREAK

Session 7: Future & Followup (Chair: S. Kulkarni)

1600   LSST                        (Z. Ivezic)
1630   Dissemination: beyond GCN   (R. Seaman)
1700   Scoping the Followup effort (led by J. Bloom)
1730   Last Word                   (L. Bildsten)
1745   END OF CONFERENCE

(Virtual) Poster Session

Unfortunately we are unable to arrange for a physical poster session (easels etc). The organizers genuinely regret this inconvenience. In lieu we will make arrangements for a "Virtual Poster Session" (in the spirit of the prevailing VO spirit). Dr. Joshua Bloom (jbloom@astron.berkeley.edu) has agreed to coordinate this effort and to make it a coherent presentation (of value beyond the lifetime of the meeting). The following have been invited to contribute to this session (but other contributors are welcome; this is the beauty of virtual sessions).

[1]   Palomar Quest: Variable Quasars  (Baltay)
[2]?  Pairitel                         (Bloom)
[3]   Automated Palomar 60-inch        (Cenko)
[4]   PROMPT                           (La Cluzye)
[5]?  SLOTIS                           (Park)
[6]   GRBLOG                           (Quimby)
[7]   TAOS                             (Schwamb)
[8]   GRB followup with ROTSE          (Yost)
[9]?  GRB followup with KAIT           (Weidong Li)
[10]  Palomar Quest Transients         (Mahabal)
[11]  SDSS SN Search                   (Sako)
[12]? Przemek Wozniak