Massive Stars: Fundamental Parameters and Circumstellar Interactions


La Plata Massive Stars Research Group

Facultad de Ciencias Astronomicas y Geofisicas, La Plata, Argentina

Massive stars, though relatively few in number and short-lived,
outshine all of their numerous less massive neighbors and rule their
environments, from the onset of their strong stellar winds to their deaths
in core-collapse supernova explosions. Massive stars dissociate, ionize,
photoevaporate, and mechanically transform their parental molecular
clouds and generate circumstellar bubbles. Massive stars also produce
many of heavy metals and are thus an essential source of the chemical
enrichment observed in our solar system. The binary or multiple nature of
most of these objects adds further dimensions to their phenomenology and
evolution, such as stellar-wind interactions and mass transfer. While
the basic features of the evolution of both single and binary massive stars
are understood, many challenges remain to a full understanding of their
pre- through post-main-sequence stages, including internal mixing and mass
loss as functions of mass, metallicity, rotation, and magnetic fields. The
zoo of peculiar evolved objects and the specific progenitor configurations
of the various types of core-collapse supernovae remain research frontiers.

Virpi Niemela has been an active and prolific researcher on massive
stars for about four decades and the La Plata Massive Stars Research
Group would like to celebrate her 70th birthday by hosting a scientific
meeting focused on her field of endeavor.

In this conference, we aim to review and discuss all present knowledge about
massive stars, with a view toward the coordination of efforts to advance our
understanding of this important subject.

Reference: Venue: Hotel Marcin, Carilo, Argentina
http://www.hotelmarcin.com.ar/home.htm
Status: Other

Weblink: http://lilen.fcaglp.unlp.edu.ar/mstars2006

Comments: In order to compile a list of researchers interested in attending the
meeting,
please send an email to mstars2006@fcaglp.unlp.edu.ar before March 31st
stating:

* Name:
* Contact email:
* Institution:
* Likeliness of attendance: definitely/high/medium/low
* I do (not) plan to submit a contribution [if you do, please send a title
or state topic of interest]

Email: mstars2006@fcaglp.unlp.edu.ar