The Birmingham-Nottingham extragalactic workshop series consists of informal 2-day events, involving typically ~50 participants, with the aim of bringing together researchers in related strands of research in a topical and well-focused area of extragalactic astronomy.
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.
Scientific Background
Mergers are ubiquitous in a hierarchical universe, and span a wide range of scales: from the hierarchical assembly of galaxy clusters including spectacular cluster-cluster mergers, through galaxy-galaxy mergers including the assembly of brightest cluster galaxies and accretion of dwarf galaxies by massive galaxies, to the merging of the black holes that reside in the centre of massive galaxies. As such, mergers provide a unique tool in astrophysics and cosmology. They enable investigation of the dark side of the universe including the nature of dark matter, and calibrating uncertainties in dark energy experiments. They are also central to studies of hydrodynamics on multiple scales, from the hot intracluster gas, down to the fuelling of supermassive black hole binaries following galaxy mergers.
This workshop aims to bring together observers, modellers, and simulators working on topics relating to cosmic mergers on the scale typically explored through observations of the extragalactic sky - i.e. from the possible detection of the mergers of massive black holes at the centres of galaxies, to the physics and cosmology enabled by the use merging clusters as huge particle colliders. In addition to hosting an exciting range of talks on new results, we hope that the workshop will help to stimulate discussion between different disciplines about common physical processes, the interplay of the different scales, simulations and data analysis challenges. This is especially relevant as the community builds towards future facilities including LSST, Euclid, E-ELT, JWST, eROSITA, Athena, SKA, and so forth.