Workshop: Dwarf Galaxies, Star Clusters, and Streams in the LSST Era
 
DGSCS 2024 | July 8 - 11, 2024 | Chicago, IL
Picture: DGSCS 2024 | July 8 - 11, 2024 | Chicago, IL
Vera C. Rubin Observatory

Credit: Y. AlSayyad/Rubin Obs/NSF/AURA
Over the last two decades, large photometric surveys like SDSS, Pan-STARRS, and DES have discovered dozens of resolved stellar systems around the Milky Way with extremely low stellar masses. These dwarf galaxies and star clusters have turned out to be excellent cosmological probes: they reach the smallest accessible scales of the power spectrum, trace hierarchical structure formation, and provide archaeological windows to the first stars and galaxies. In the past 5 years, all-sky astrometry from Gaia has further complemented these photometric surveys, enabling the discovery and characterization of these systems as they tidally disrupt into stellar streams. The next major advance in the field is Rubin/LSST. In just one year, LSST could double the number of dwarf galaxies and star clusters around the Milky Way, and it lays the groundwork to discover similarly low-mass systems beyond the Milky Way.

This workshop aims to convene a small group of researchers interested in dwarf galaxies, star clusters, and streams. Science topics will include observational frontiers/challenges in imaging and spectroscopy, dwarf galaxies beyond the local group, dwarf galaxy formation, the edge of galaxy formation and star clusters, dark matter in dwarf galaxies, tidal disruption, and near field-far field connections. The goal is to summarize the current state of the field and identify open questions and directions to pursue as LSST begins operations. The fourth day of the workshop will also include a tutorial on LSST tools. We are aiming for a very interactive workshop, with about half of the time for coffee breaks, poster time, and discussions. To facilitate this, we expect the majority of contributions to be posters, and the workshop will be limited to 100 participants.

 
Invited Speakers
Ana Bonaca
Carnegie Observatories
Mike Boylan-Kolchin
University of Texas Austin
Jeff Carlin
AURA/Rubin Observatory
Peter Ferguson
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Jenny Greene
Princeton University
Thales Gutcke
IfA, Hawaii
Ting Li
University of Toronto
Kristen McQuinn
STScI; Rutgers University
Andrew Pace
Carnegie Mellon University
Josh Simon
Carnegie Observatories

 
Scientific Organizing Committee
Anirudh Chiti
KICP/University of Chicago
Shany Danieli
Princeton University
Alex Drlica-Wagner
Fermilab/UChicago
Alex Ji
University of Chicago
Andrey Kravtsov
The University of Chicago
Burcin Mutlu-Pakdil
Dartmouth College

 
Local Organizing Committee
Daisy Bissonette
University of Chicago
Anirudh Chiti
KICP/University of Chicago
Alice Luna
University of Chicago
Ava Polzin
The University of Chicago
Chin Yi Tan
University of Chicago
Pierre Thibodeaux
University of Chicago

 
Workshop Location
Picture: Workshop Location
William Eckhart Research Center (ERC)
William Eckhardt Research Center (ERC)
The Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
ERC 161
5640 S Ellis Avenue
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL, 60637