Letters of Intent received in 2018

LoI 2020-2043
GA Symposium: Accreting Binaries Near and Far

Topics

The science topics of the symposium will include:
— Bridging the gap between accreting binary populations in our Galaxy, nearby, and high-redshift galaxies
— Observational constraints on accreting binary evolution
— Advances in accreting binary evolution theory and population synthesis
— Advances in accretion disk physics and outflows
— Exotic sources (e.g. pulsar ULXs, WR-XRBs, superfast X-ray transients)
— Gravitational wave source progenitors
— IGM preheating
— Recent results from Gaia, eROSITA
— Prospects for the 2020 decade: ATHENA and other future international observatories, SKA, LSST, advances in modeling accreting binaries.

Rationale

The available suite of X-ray observatories gives us an unprecedented view of X-ray binaries in our Galaxy, nearby galaxies, as well as in galaxies at cosmological distances. A combination of these observational constraints is critical for a complete understanding of accreting binary formation and evolution. Furthermore, recent discoveries of exotic X-ray binaries in nearby galaxies (e.g. ULX pulsars, WR X-ray binaries) and the detection of gravitational waves from massive stellar black-hole mergers (>20 sollar masses), which are the endpoints of X-ray binary systems, has sparked several observational and theoretical studies aiming to better understand the nature and formation channels of these extreme objects.

Unifying the information from this multi-faceted and interdisciplinary observational landscape and combining it with theoretical advances in binary evolution is key for modeling the cosmological evolution of compact objects, addressing their role in reionization and preheating of the intergalactic medium, and understanding the progenitors and rates of compact object mergers.

The next few years are expected to yield several new discoveries based on e.g. systematic X-ray studies of exotic sources and X-ray binary populations, the eROSITA all sky survey, the initiation of the O3 LIGO program in 2019, and the increasing availability of accurate distances for Galactic X-ray binaries from Gaia data, among others. In addition systematic on-going efforts in the directions of modeling complex binary evolution phases (e.g. common envelope), accretion-disk physics, and the development of novel approaches in accreting binary population synthesis will provide new insights in binary evolution and will allow for new tests through comparisons with the wealth of forthcoming data.

This meeting is aiming to bring together the different communities related to studies of accreting binaries, at a time that important theoretical and observational advances are expected to take place. These communities include those interested on: different regimes of accreting binary observations (e. g. Galactic, extragalactic, high-redshift); detailed modeling of binary evolution and population synthesis, and problems that employ prescriptions for accreting binary populations (e.g. reionization, IGM preheating, high-energy emission from high-z galaxies). In addition since major facilities are expected to become available in the next decade (e.g. SKA, LSST, 30m class telescopes, ATHENA), 2020 is the optimal time to assess the landscape and identify areas that additional progress in required in order to make the best use of the forthcoming data.