Astrochemistry with ALMA school

The Italian ALMA Regional Centre and the Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania organize a Training School "Astrochemistry with ALMA".

The School is funded by the EU through ITN LASSIE Network and COST Action CM0805.

Date: 13 - 17 June 2011 Venue: Research Campus, CNR Bologna

The School will consist of general introductory lectures which will present the ALMA project and its potential impact on astrochemistry. The focus will be on chemistry in star forming regions, in envelopes of evolved stars, and in comets.

The School is open to students of all backgrounds (experimental, observational, theoretical) and is meant to provide researchers not actively involved in interferometry with a basic knowledge for a successful use of ALMA.

Photos of the meeting

The final program for the school can be found here.

Lectures on-line: (all pdf, except where noted)

   Lecture   1 Neri: Introduction to radioastronomy Lecture1-Neri.pdf
   Lecture   2 Testi: Introduction to ALMA Lecture2-Testi.pdf
   Lecture   3 Caselli: Interstellar medium & chemistry Lecture3-Caselli.pdf
   Lecture   4 Caselli: Molecular astrophysics Lecture4-Caselli.pdf
   Lecture   5 Beltran: Star formation Lecture5-Beltran.pdf
   Lectures 6 & 11 Neri: Interferometry I & II (pps file)
   Lecture   7 Caselli: Pre-stellar cores Lecture7-Caselli.pdf
   Lecture   8 Ceccarelli: Proposal, grant and CV writing Lecture8-Ceccarelli.pdf
   Lecture   9 Andreani: ALMA Regional Centres Lecture9-Andreani.pdf
   Lecture 10 Beltran: Hot cores/corinos Lecture10-Beltran.pdf
   Lecture 12 Semenov: Dust in disks Lecture12-Semenov.pdf
   Lecture 13 Cernicharo: Evolved stars Lecture13-Cernicharo.pdf
   Lecture 14 Mason: Cosmic rays chemistry I Lecture14-Mason.pdf
   Lecture 15 Semenov: Gas in disks Lecture15-Semenov.pdf
   Lecture 16 Mason: Cosmic rays chemistry II Lecture16-Mason.pdf
   Lecture 17 Boissier: Comets I Lecture17-Boissier.pdf
   Lecture 18 Semenov: Planet formation Lecture18-Semenov.pdf
   Lecture 19 Boissier: Comets II Lecture19-Boissier.pdf
   Lecture 20 Cernicharo: Spectral surveys with ALMALecture20-Cernicharo.pdf
   Lecture 21 Casasola: ALMA proposal preparation Lecture21-Casasola.pdf
   Lecture 22 Mignano: ALMA data reduction (pps file)

Group assignments: Hands-on problems (Ceccarelli)

Literature references for assignments:

   Agundez-etal-2008
   Awad-etal-2010
   Bergin-Tafalla-2008
   Bockelee-Morvan-etal-2000
   Caselli-etal-2002
   Ceccarelli-etal-2007
   Ceccarelli-etal-2010
   Cernicharo-etal-2000
   Crovisier-2004
   Falgarone-etal-2009
   Garrod-Herbst-2006
   Guelin-etal-2008
   Scalo-Elmegreen-2004
   Semenov-etal-2004
   Semenov-etal-2008
   Thi-etal-2010

Announcement

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is one of the largest ground-based astronomical projects of the next decade. The ALMA project is an international collaboration between Europe, East Asia and North America, in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. Construction of the array started in 2003 and will be completed in 2013. Already in 2011 it will be possible to perform the first scientific observations with the array, albeit it with a limited number of antennas, configurations, and receivers. The Call for Proposals for this “Early Science” is expected to be issued at the end of the first quarter of 2011. ALMA will operate at wavelengths between 0.3 and 9.6 millimeter and will provide astronomers with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution. This will allow us to unravel the chemical composition of the molecular gas surrounding young stars, to establish the role of the freeze-out of gas-phase species onto grains, and the re-release of these species back into the gas phase in the warm inner regions of circumstellar disks, and to study the formation of complex organic molecules. ALMA will have the large total bandwidth, high spectral resolution, and sensitivity needed to detect the myriad of lines associated with heavy, pre-biotic molecules such as those which may have been present in the young Solar System. ALMA willalso allow us to study the formation of molecules and dust grains in the envelopes of evolved stars, and to refine chemical models of planetary atmospheres and of comets in our own Solar System.

The Training School will consist of general introductory lectures which will present the ALMA project and its potential impact on astrochemistry. The focus will be on chemistry in star forming regions, in envelopes of evolved stars, and in comets.

The School is open to students with different backgrounds (experimental, observational, theoretical) and is meant to provide researchers not actively involved in interferometry with a basic knowledge for a successful use of ALMA.

Invited lecturers and topics

R. Neri (IRAM, F): Introduction on interferometry
L. Testi (ESO): ALMA project, state of the art
P. Andreani (ESO): ALMA Regional Centers, technical characteristics
P. Caselli (University of Leeds, UK): From ISM to prestellar cores
M. Beltran (INAF, I): Molecular complexity: hot cores and hot corinos
D. Semenov (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, D): Disks with ALMA
J. Boissier (ALMA Regional Center, I): Comets with ALMA
J. Cernicharo (Observatorio Astronomico Nacional, E): Chemistry in envelopes of evolved stars and spectral surveys
R. Hudson (NASA/Goddard, USA): Chemistry triggered by cosmic energetic particles
V. Casasola (ALMA Regional Center, I): ALMA proposal preparation
A. Mignano (ALMA Regional Center, I): ALMA data reduction software

Scientific Organizing Committee

Jan Brand
Cecilia Ceccarelli
Martin McCoustra
Nigel Mason
M. Elisabetta Palumbo

Local Organizing Committee

Jeremie Boissier
Jan Brand
Viviana Casasola
Karl-Heinz Mack
Arturo Mignano
M. Elisabetta Palumbo
Isabella Prandoni
Daniela Recupero
Marika Rosati
Alessandra Rossetti

Registration

To register, please use this form. The deadline for registration is 25 March 2011. There is no registration fee. An e-mail will be sent to confirm reception of your registration.

The School can accept a maximum of 50 participants. Immediately after the deadline the organizers will inform those who have been selected to attend; the others will be put on a waiting list.

Selected participants will have to make their own hotel reservations. We have made agreements with various hotels in Bologna (see here for the full list) for the School participants. To make use of these special arrangements, the selected participants must contact the hotel before 15 April 2011.

If needed, participants may ask for financial support. In that case, they should contact Dr. M.E. Palumbo, INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania ( mepalumbo@oact.inaf.it; tel: +39 095 7332242; fax: +39 095 330592).