Contact: kchatziioannou[AT]flatironinstitute.org
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is an ESA-led mission to observe gravitational waves in the mHz band. To prepare for LISA observations and its unique data products, we are organizing a meeting at the Center for Computational Astrophysics at the Flatiron Institute in New York, from Wednesday March 4 to Friday March 6, 2020.
The meeting will be modeled after the successful Gaia Sprints following Gaia data releases and its goal will be two-fold: The first goal is to connect LISA data scientists with astronomers and astrophysicists who will incorporate LISA data products into their own research. The second is to advance the broader research community’s readiness to capitalize on LISA observations.
The themes of this first meeting are Galactic Astronomy and Cosmology. LISA, among other things, will probe Milky Way structure and binary astrophysics by surveying electromagnetically faint ultra compact binaries, and track the growth and properties of supermassive black holes out to large redshifts. During the workshop small interdisciplinary teams of researchers will come together and make concrete progress on concise projects and goals related to these scientific topics. A number of project ideas and mock data and/or data products will be produced and provided by the organizers in collaboration with experts in the field. Additionally, participants are encouraged to propose ideas and contribute further material that adheres to the workshop’s format.
This will be a hands-on workshop: there will be no talks–only brief project “pitches” at the beginning of the workshop, and “show and tell” at the close of the meeting to share progress with the group.
Interested parties can apply using the link provided; the application includes a short (one paragraph) description of a potential project and/or goal of the applicant related to the workshop topics. Due to limited space (~30 participants), applications will be accepted until January 15, 2020 and participants will be notified soon after. Partial travel support will be provided.
Katerina Chatziioannou
Will Farr
Tyson Littenberg