Start date/time

May 20, 2013

End date/time

May 24, 2013

Place

Haarlem,
Netherlands

Contact

Jan Cami
jcami@uwo.ca

Event website

http://www.iau297.nl/

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Coordinating Division

Division VI Interstellar Matter

SOC Co-Chairs: Harold Linnartz (Netherlands), Nick Cox (Belgium)

SOC Members: Martin Cordiner (USA), Pascale Ehrenfreund (Netherlands), Gazinur Galatzutdinov (Chile), Cornelia Jager (Germany), Jacek Krelowski (Poland), Sun Kwok (China Nanjing), Farid Salama (USA), Peter Sarre (UK), Timothy Schmidt (Australia), Theodore Snow (USA), Paule Sonnentrucker (USA), Donald York (USA)

Editors of Proceedings: Jan Cami (Canada), Nick Cox (Belgium)

Topics:

1. Astronomical surveys: overall properties and statistics of the Diffuse Interstellar Bands (DIBs) and their relation to known interstellar species and components (C, Si, atomic and molecular hydrogen, C2, dust, ...).
2. DIB behaviour in different (and extreme) environments.
3. What can we learn from analyzing DIB line profiles and correlations?
4. DIBs and the connection to other astronomical phenomena (Extended Red Emission, Unidentified InfraRed bands, UV extinction,...)
5. Laboratory Astrophysics: current status and limitations of spectroscopy of potential DIB carriers.
6. Laboratory Astrophysics: what carriers can thrive & survive in DIB environments: stability & irradiation studies, hydrogenation, ...
7. General properties of the most commonly suggested classes of DIB carriers: carbon chains, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules, fullerene compounds.
8. Theoretical and computational approaches & needs: quantum chemistry calculations (DFT, ...), chemical network models, astrophysical models.
9. How can recent and future observatories & instruments (HST/COS, SOFIA, ALMA, JWST, VLT, ELTs,...) contribute to help narrowing or eventually solving the DIB problem?
10. What are the most promising avenues toward identifying the DIB carriers?