This is a raw list of contributions, which we have received so far (alphabetical order till June 18, thereafter in order of receipt). The SOC will now prepare a program, informations coming up here soon. Short communications for every contribution will appear in print: Astronomische Nachrichten, Suppl. Issue 1, 2004.
Our workshop is especially aimed at young scientists, who want to present their results. There will be a poster presentation session in the plenum.
This meeting is enlisted in the sequence of MODEST Workshops as satellite meeting MODEST-5b.
More informations on other splinter meetings here . More information on the main conference here (in English) and here (in German).
Organising Committee of Splinter Meeting E: The European MODEST Consortium, consisting of: E. Athanassoula (Marseille, F), C.M. Boily (Strasbourg, F), R Capuzzo-Dolcetta (Rome, I), M. Davies (Lund, S), M. Giersz (Warsaw, PL), G. Gilmore (Cambridge, GB), E. Grebel (Basel, CH), D.C. Heggie (Edinburgh, GB), R. Klessen (Potsdam, D), P. Kroupa (Bonn, D), G. Piotto (Padova, I), S. Portegies Zwart (Amsterdam, NL), L. Subr (Prague, CZ) and R. Spurzem (Heidelberg, D).
Coeval associations of stars, also called stellar clusters, are born at all epochs; their physical characteristics evolve constantly in time, and eventually, they dissolve, or `die'. Yet through star formation processes, new star clusters are constantly forming from interstellar matter processed in some of their dead ancestors -- completing a life-cycle that lies at the cross-road of so many fields of research in modern astronomy, such as the formation of stars for sure, but also the statistics of stellar populations in galaxies; dynamical evolution by gravitational interaction; the formation of high-density galactic nuclei; and even the determination of the age of the universe -- since the oldest populations of stars ever observed sit at the heart of large, ancient clusters. A formidable challenge is to decode the fossil record of such large and old clusters, by building a complete picture of their evolution from the perspective of their member stars, including all their mutual interacti ons.
Research on star clusters focuses in parts on the densest, most prominent, and most massive clusters of stars, known as globular clusters. The mass density in their centre is so high that collisions are the main driving force of stellar and dynamical evolution. These massive clusters are the best laboratories for studying the formation and physical nature of extreme stellar populations (like X-ray binaries or blue stragglers), and thus are ideal testbeds where to test population synthesis models and stellar evolution tracks. These in turn provide pivotal tools for understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies in the young universe.
Yet the avenues for research do not stop at massive clusters: in the context of cluster formation, hundreds of young, nearby low-mass clusters provide insights into the general concepts of star formation that are otherwise concealed by age and distance.
All the above points, if related to the formation and evolution of dense stellar systems, will be the topics of the proposed splinter meeting on ''Dense stellar systems - old and young''. While we are committed to provide a forum for our young colleagues, for oral talks as well as posters, we plan to increase the attractivity of the meeting by scheduling a few invited talks of international standard for an overview of some topics.