FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT
IAU Symposium 200: The Formation of Binary Stars
April 10 - 15, 2000: Potsdam, Germany
The IAU has approved the holding of a symposium on ``The Formation
of Binary Stars'' to take place from April 10 - 15, 2000, in Potsdam,
Germany. Potsdam is located about 30 km southwest of the centre of
Berlin, and the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam (AIP) will host the
conference at its Telegraphenberg site.
There has never been an IAU-sponsored symposium on young binary stars,
understandable given that a decade ago only a few young binaries were
known. However, it is now clear that binary stars are a central theme
of star formation and merit a comprehensive discussion at the level of
an IAU symposium.
The symposium will include many invited talks covering both theory and
observations of binary star formation, as well as an extensive poster
session. Major topics will include:
- Cloud fragmentation and collapse
- Proto-binaries and infrared companions
- Main sequence and pre-main sequence binary populations
- Environments of young binaries; accretion disks and jets
- Dynamical evolution of young binaries
- Binaries as tests of pre-main sequence stellar evolution models
- Planet formation in binary systems
- Frontiers of observation and theory in the study of binary formation
Potsdam has a long tradition in binary star research dating back to Hermann
Carl Vogel, who measured the radial velocities for hundreds of bright stars
at the turn of the century. This line of research also led to the discovery
of stationary Calcium H and K lines in the spectrum of the delta Ori
binary system by Johannes Hartmann with the Potsdam double refractor, and
thence to the discovery of the interstellar medium. Thus the connection of
binary stars and their origin in interstellar clouds is nicely established
in Potsdam. Furthermore, the AIP, as the successor of the old Berlin
Sternwarte founded in 1700, will celebrate its 300th anniversary in the
year of the symposium.
Scientific Organizing Committee:
H. Zinnecker (co-chair), R. D. Mathieu (co-chair), P. Artymowicz, A. Boss,
J. Bouvier, C. Clarke, A. Dutrey, A. Ghez, P. Kroupa, C. Leinert, S. Miyama,
B. Reipurth, M. Simon, A. Tokovinin, and A. Whitworth.
Contact information:
The symposium website
(http://www.aip.de/IAU200/) will soon
include full details on registering for the conference, arranging
accommodation, how to reach Potsdam, and so on. In the meantime, preliminary
interest in attending the meeting should be expressed by sending email to
iau200@aip.de; further announcements
concerning the meeting will be made via e-mail and the IAU200 website.
If you have any additional questions, please contact Hans Zinnecker at:
Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam,
Germany;
Phone: +49 (0)331 7499 347; Fax: +49 (0)331 7499 267;
e-mail: hzinnecker@aip.de
Last change: Tue Jul 4 16:52:09 2000