The 7th Birmingham Extragalactic Workshop - 1st Announcement "Constructing Clusters" June 28-29th 2004 The Birmingham Workshops are informal 2-day events held each summer, with the aim of bringing together observation and theory in a topical and well-focussed area of extragalactic astronomy. This year's topic is the assembly and evolution of clusters of galaxies. Further details of this topic are given below. The workshop, involving ~50 participants, will be the 7th in the series of Birmingham extragalactic workshops. The format will include a mixture of 15 and 30 minute talks, leaving plenty of time for discussion. The meeting will start at 11:00am on June 28th and conclude at around 4:00pm on the 29th, so that only one overnight stay in Birmingham is required. Please let us know if you would like to attend (an email form is attached below). If you are interested in giving a talk, let us have a title. The basic workshop fee will be 38 pounds per participant. This includes two lunches and a traditional Birmingham gastronomic feast (Balti) on the Monday evening. Accommodation for the Monday night is available in local hotels/B+Bs (a list will be provided to those attending) or student accommodation. The total cost for those staying in student accommodation, including meals & registration, will only be about 70 pounds (to be confirmed). Please reply by May 17th to workshop@star.sr.bham.ac.uk so that a preliminary programme can be constructed. Please pass this message on to anyone else you think may be interested. We look forward to seeing you at the workshop. Laurence Jones Trevor Ponman ***************************************************************** The 7th Birmingham Extragalactic Workshop ----------------------------------------- Constructing Clusters --------------------- The hierarchical picture of cluster assembly, with mass and galaxy infall along filaments and via mergers, is certainly an attractive model, but how much hard evidence exists to support it? What are the effects of cluster growth through accretion and mergers on the galaxy population and the intergalactic gas? When and how were cluster ellipticals assembled? These are questions we wish to address in this year's Birmingham workshop. Current cluster observations reach all the way from evidence for proto-clusters at very high redshifts, through recently discovered clusters at z~1, to detailed studies of clusters in the nearby Universe. Linking the observed properties of these systems should in principle give us a clear picture of cluster assembly, but we are still missing crucial information. Future wide-field surveys (eg NIR, SZ) will help to fill the gaps. The aim of this workshop is to bring together observations, theory and simulations covering a broad range of overdensity and redshift, to address the topic of cluster assembly, and its effects on the structure and contents of clusters. The Birmingham Extragalactic Workshops typically involve ~50 participants, and are held in the School of Physics & Astronomy at Birmingham University. The format will be similar to previous workshops in the series, with a mixture of 15 and 30 minute talks, leaving plenty of time for discussion. Probable speakers from outside Birmingham include: R. Davies, S. Rawlings, M. Bremer, M. Birkinshaw, R. Bower, R. Ivison, M. Balogh (some to be confirmed) **************************************************************** Please send this form to workshop@star.sr.bham.ac.uk by May 17th. The 7th Birmingham Extragalactic Workshop "Constructing Clusters" Name:- Institute:- I would like to attend the Workshop on June 28 and 29th I would like to give a talk entitled:- (Delete if not applicable) Preferred duration [15min/30min]: ***************************************************************