Fireworks 2015: "New and emerging classes of Transients"

Fireworks 2015: "New and emerging classes of Transients"Organisers: P.A. Mazzali, D.F. Bersier (LJMU), K. Maguire (ESO), M. Sullivan (Southampton)LOC: D. Bersier, P.A. Mazzali, C. Ashall, S. Prentice, P. James This announcement is to advertise a specialist meeting, sponsored by the Royal Astronomical Society, focussing on the topics of superluminous supernovae and the various sub-populations of Type Ia SNe, to be held at Liverpool John Moores University from 23rd-25th June, 2015.The study of supernovae (SNe) has moved beyond the classical dichotomy of thermonuclear v. core collapse. The large number of discoveries revealed by untargeted surveys such as PTF and Pan-STARRS has led to the discovery of a number of events that do not fit the observational description and physical interpretation of the two main groups of SNe. This was recently reviewed in a very successful RAS Specialist Meeting (March 2014). Although the number of these events is small, they are extremely interesting from the point of view of their relation to progenitor stars, of the physical mechanisms of their explosions, as well as possible implications for cosmology.In particular, a group of extremely luminous SNe has been discovered, which are much more luminous than SNe Ia and are discovered typically at high redshift. Their properties are not homogeneous, and they have been subdivided observationally into various groups under the general umbrella of "SuperLuminous SNe". While some of these events may result from strong interaction between a stellar explosion and a circumstellar medium, others are candidate "pair instability" SNe (the thermonuclear explosion of a star so massive that it becomes pair unstable before its core can collapse). Another power mechanism that has been proposed is that of a
magnetar.In the domain of SNe Ia, subgroups of new events, entirely different to those used for cosmological studies, have been found, to the point that their relation to the classical scenario of a thermonuclear explosion of a Carbon-Oxygen white dwarf has been questioned. It is becoming clear that there are many ways to explode white dwarfs (at least in a computer), and so it is important that we understand wha we are really looking at observationally.In this meeting we will bring together observers and theorists that work on SN physics in order to make progress on our understanding of these events, confronting models and data to explore the observational diagnostics needed for a proper understanding.The meeting will be held from Mon 23 to Wed 25 June, 2015 at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), in the new Redmonds Building on the LJMU campus, centrally located in the city of Liverpool (close to Lime St. station, hotels and restaurants). Monday: 2pm - 6pm; Tue: 10am - 6pm; Wed: 10am - 2pm Coffee breaks and sandwich lunches will be provided, and no registration fee
will be charged. Travel/subsistence support can be provided. This aims in particular at supporting early-stage researchers (students and postdocs). Please apply via email to P.Mazzali@ljmu.ac.uk