12th INTEGRAL Conference / 1ST AHEAD Gamma-ray workshop: INTEGRAL looks AHEAD to Multi-Messenger Astrophysics
The 12th INTEGRAL Conference will be organized together with the
1stAHEAD Gamma-ray workshop on 11-15 February 2019. It will be hosted
by the Campus Biotech, in Geneva (Switzerland).
On August 17, 2017, a new era of astronomy was inaugurated by a short gamma-ray
burst accompanying the gravitational wave GW170817 detected by LIGO-VIRGO (see
INTEGRAL POM November 2017). While the neutrinos from SN1987a had been a
first milestone towards multi-messenger astronomy three decades earlier, the true
breakthrough in High-Energy Neutrino astronomy is about to take place today, due to
the recent advances in large volume ice and water detectors (see, e.g.,
INTEGRAL POM August 2018). One of the most important observational challenges
of our time is to establish the link between the discoveries of these new astronomies
and the electromagnetic Universe. As the same violent phenomena that generate
gravitational waves and/or high energy neutrinos are also the source of high energy
photons, gamma-ray astronomy has been - and will remain - pivotal in connecting new and
"old" astronomies.
The conference will discuss recent developments in high-energy astronomy, with
particular emphasis on its role in multi-messenger astronomy. Beyond the present
generation of gamma-ray instruments, the choral of multi-messenger astronomies will
require a voice in the MeV band. One of the aims of the workshop is therefore to review
the status and development of future instruments and to discuss perspectives in
observational gamma-ray astronomy; these topics will be highlighted during the meeting
as AHEAD Gamma-ray workshop (AHEAD
is a European Community H2020 program, one of its goals is enabling the development of
future gamma-ray astrophysics missions).
The deadline for abstracts for requesting talks is 20 November 2018.
Registration for the workshop, as well as sending in poster abstracts, can be done
up to 4 January 2019. More information can be found on the website
quoted below.
