Gravitational Instability: unsolved problems in forming planets, brown dwarfs and stellar companions
27th - 29th June 2018
University of Leicester
Motivation
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The workshop will bring together scientists working on the role of gravitational instability in the formation of planets, brown dwarfs and stellar companions. The key idea is to avoid holding just another conference, and instead have plenty of time for discussions of not only recent progress, but also unsolved issues, observational constraints, and the direction of future work. We also hope to use workshop to foster collaborations on projects aligned with workshop science goals. To enable this, the workshop attendance is limited. However, if you would like to suggest a participant, please contact Sergei Nayakshin at sn85@le.ac.uk
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Three days, three topics
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We propose to organise the scientific program into three major blocks, one for each day of the workshop:
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Day 1: Theory and simulations of disc fragmentation and gas clump evolution
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Day 2: Dust growth and dynamics in self-gravitating discs and inside clumps
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Day 3: Population synthesis of gravitationally unstable discs and relation to observations
Workshop timetable
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We aim to maximally enhance opportunity to start new collaborations and projects. For this purpose, talks are to be held in the mornings and the afternoons will be used for discussions. Additionally, there will be time for discussion after each talk, we suggest a talk length maximum 25 minutes with 15 minutes for extended questions and discussion. All sessions will be held in room E (upstairs in the physics department). A rough plan of this is
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9:00 - 11:00 Talks
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11:00 - 11:30 Coffee
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11:30 - 13:00 Talks
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13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
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14:00 - 15:20 Talks
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15:20 - 15:50 Coffee
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16:00 - 17:00 Organised discussions (Topic of the Day)
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17:00 - 18:00 Free time for smaller group meetings/collaborations
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Afternoon discussions
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We suggest that afternoon discussions (16:00 to 17:00) are focused around the "topic of the day". Ideally the discussion should formulate a set of problems that is most urgent for the community to address in the near future, and how we could go about it. We will have one or two discussion leaders to enable this. It would also be great to go around the room and ask each participant to voice their opinion on the matter (if he/she feels doing so) to avoid the discussion being dominated by too few people.
Confirmed participants
Vardan Adibekyan (Porto, via Skype)
Clément Baruteau (SOC, Toulouse)
Matthew Bate (Exeter)
Richard Booth (Cambridge)
Hongping Deng (Zurich)
Mark Fletcher (Leicester)
Duncan Forgan (SOC, St Andrews)
Cassandra Hall (Leicester)
Tom Hands (Zurich)
Jack Humphries (Leicester)
John Ilee (Cambridge)
Henrik Latter (Cambridge)
Doug Lin (Santa Cruz)
Anthony Mercer (Preston)
Farzana Meru (SOC, Warwick, TBC)
Dominique Meyer (Exeter)
Simon Müller (Zurich)
Sergei Nayakshin (SOC Chair, Leicester)
Rebecca Nealon (Leicester)
Chris Ormel (Amsterdam)
Ken Rice (SOC, Edinburgh)
Judit Szulagyi (Zurich)
Dimitris Stamatellos (SOC, Preston)
Eduard Vorobyov (SOC, Vienna)
Ravit Helled, Lucio Meyer (SOC, not attending)
Logistical Information
The conference will take place in the Physics Department at the University of Leicester in room E (upstairs). Leicester is a very walkable city and the campus is only about 15 minutes away from the train station by foot. We will meet in the Foyer of the Physics Department on Wednesday morning.
We will be providing tea, coffee and biscuits during breaks in the conference. There is also a starbucks and a variety of other cafes at the University campus.
For lunch we will head to the Graduate Kitchen on the first floor of the Charles Wilson Building, just five minutes walk away from the physics department. Meals are approximately £5 and will need to be purchased separately.
On Thursday evening we have booked a large table for 7 pm at the South Indian restaurant Kayal. Their speciality is Keralese seafood although they serve a wide range of food including delicious vegetarian dishes.
Please let us know if you have any dietary requirements and we can contact these venues in advance to check on availability.
Accommodation
There are a range of accommodation options available during your stay in Leicester. We will update this list soon with more information but here is a brief overview of the options.
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-College Court: 4 star university accommodation ~ £85
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-Local Hotels: Reasonably priced and quite close by. We recommend Belmont hotel, Premier Inn and Spindle Lodge.
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-AirBnB: There are several very affordable space in the centre of the city still available for the conference dates.
Belmont Hotel - https://www.belmonthotel.co.uk/
Premier Inn - https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/leicestershire/leicester/leicester-city-centre.html
Spindle Lodge - http://www.spindlelodge.co.uk/
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Contact Jack at rjh73@le.ac.uk if you have any questions about accommodation.
CONTACT US
The University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, United Kingdom
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For more information contact
Sergei Nayakshin: sn85@le.ac.uk
Jack Humphries: rjh73@le.ac.uk; 07580 558607
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