Funds are provided for participant support for the 4th annual Snowbird Workshop on Particle Astrophysics, Astronomy, and Cosmology (SnowPAC 2013), organized by the Department of Physics and Astronomy of The University of Utah. The award will support participation (via lodging cost subsidy) by 20 individuals who would otherwise be unable to attend the meeting, with a particular emphasis on broadening participation by junior researchers and groups traditionally underrepresented in astronomy and astrophysics.
The SnowPAC workshop is an international meeting that reviews recent developments in particle astrophysics, dark matter, dark energy, astronomy, and cosmology. It seeks to establish new connections between these disciplines and establish new collaborative ties between individuals working in these research areas.
The main SnowPAC 2013 conference will be a topical conference on "Black Hole Fingerprints: Dynamics, Disruptions & Demographics." This conference will combine an exploration of our current knowledge of black hole demographics with a discussion of the future promise of using tidal disruption events to expand our knowledge of the populations of black holes in galaxies. This conference will be followed by a smaller SnowDARK 2013 workshop focusing on non-WIMP dark matter candidates.
This NSF award provided support for participants in the SnowPAC 2013 conference "Black Hole Fingerprints: Dynamics, Disruptions & Demographics" held at Snowbird, UT from March 17-22, 2013. Through NSF and departmental matching funds, support was given to 29 of 78 participants, including 12 female and 16 junior scientists; the NSF funding was crucial in enabling young and under-represented groups to attend the conference. The average funding given to each attendee was lodging support for 2.5 nights, or approximately $500. The conference was the first topical conference on black holes in the US since Aug. 2011. It succeeded in bringing together two previously unconnected subfields within astronomy; the community that studies black holes in galaxies, and those who study transient astronomical events. This connection was made because in current and upcoming transient surveys, disruptions of stars around black holes will revolutionize the study of black hole demographics. There was also an even representation of both observers of these phenomenon and theorists who predict and interpret them. A total of 55 talks were given and 15 posters were put up in the lecture hall and visible all week. The 78 scientific participants came from 13 countries; more than a dozen students from the University of Utah also attended at least one day of the conference. In addition to the scientific proceedings, a public talk was given by Linda Strubbe (whose participation was enabled by NSF funds) entitled "Snacktime for Hungry Black Holes." The talk was held in Snowbird, UT and was attended by about 75 people including more than a dozen local high school students. The talk was also live streamed (and watched by ~20 people) and is also available in youtube where it has been viewed 63 times.
