Magnetic field formation and

evolution in neutron stars

PHAROS WG4+WG5 meeting and CoCoNuT Meeting 2018

CEA (Saclay, France), November 14-16, 2018

Introduction

Magnetic fields play a fundamental role in compact objects. They control the evolution of neutron stars rotation rate and determine to a large extent their electromagnetic emission. The most spectacular example is the class of magnetars, hosting the most intense known magnetic fields reaching values over 1E15 G. The dissipation of this magnetic energy is thought to power the intense X-ray and gamma-ray emission observed from galactic magnetars (anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft gamma repeaters). Furthermore, the formation of a fast rotating magnetar is thought to power some of the most extreme events observed in the universe (gamma-ray bursts, hypernovae, superluminous supernovae) and may also take place in some neutron star mergers. In all these events the extremely intense magnetic field plays a crucial role in launching the GRB jet or extracting the rotational energy on the required timescale to boost the emission of the supernovae. Finally, magnetic field is also a key ingredient in binary systems where accretion is taking place, by inducing the turbulence in the accretion disk and by launching jets.

The CoConut meeting is a series of meetings that have been taking place yearly since 2008. Originally the meeting was intended to be a workshop to join the developers and users of the CoCoNuT code once per year. However, over the years the meeting has opened to a wider community not only restricted to users of the CoCoNuT code, which are usually a minority among the participants nowadays. Each year the meeting is devoted to a different topic, related to the interests of the users of the CoCoNuT code. The CoCoNuT code is a general relativistic hydrodynamics code with dynamical spacetime evolution. The aim of this numerical code is the study of several astrophysical scenarios in which general relativity can play an important role, namely the collapse of rapidly rotating stellar cores and the evolution of isolated neutron stars.

This year the meeting will be held under the umbrella of the COST action PHAROS, The multi-messenger physics and astrophysics of neutron stars, within the working groups WG4 and WG5 activities. The meeting will focus on the origin, the evolution and the consequences of the magnetic field in compact objects. Many fundamental questions are still open and will be adressed in particular along the following topics:

Magnetic field amplification in proto-neutron stars
Impact of magnetic fields in core-collapse supernovae and gamma-ray bursts.
Magnetic field of galactic neutron stars.
Magnetic field in neutron star mergers.
Turbulence in accretion disks around compact objects and the launching of jets.

Invited speakers

Francesco Coti Zelati (IEEC-CSIC, Barcelona)
Basile Gallet (CEA-Saclay)
Koh Takahashi (Argelander Institute for Astronomy, Bonn)

Conference venue:

The meeting will be held at the Astrophysics Department of CEA Saclay (DAp) about 20 km south-west of Paris on November 14-16, 2018.

DAp is among the major space laboratories in France. It includes nearly 200 people, including 130 permanent staff. In direct collaboration with CNES, which is responsible for the space activities of French laboratories, DAp is involved in space missions for ESA's Cosmic Vision scientific program and on bilateral missions supported by CNES. It is also strongly involved in the development of high performances computing in astrophysics through the COAST project. In direct connection with the topic of the meeting, DAp is in particular strongly involved in high-energy satellites (e.g. Integral or the future mission SVOM dedicated to gamma-ray bursts) and in the observation as well as the analytical and numerical modelling of compact objects, their formation and their accretion disks.

Registration

If you would like to attend the meeting please follow the registration instructions.

Registration deadline: October 30, 2018
Hotel booking deadline: October 15, 2018

Financial support

There is a limited amount of support from the eCOST action PHAROS especially (but not only) targetted for young researchers and researchers from inclusiveness target countries (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Republic of Serbia and Turkey). Please let us know if you wish to apply and motivate your application with a short paragraph and a CV.

Organizing committee

Pablo Cerdá-Durán, Universitat de València (Spain)
Isabel Cordero-Carrión, Universitat de València (Spain)
Jerome Guilet, CEA (Saclay, France)
Micaela Oertel, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon (France)

Meeting policy

Gender equity policy: The organisers take into account gender equity in the composition of the organising committee, the invited speakers and the session chairs, and are against any kind of discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation or race.

The CoCoNut meeting is a family friendly meeting. If you are travelling with kids please contact us and we will try to help to the best of our ability.