Draft Programme: 2015 IPTA Science Meeting and Supermassive Black Hole Workshop

A PDF of the programme may be downloaded here

Monday 27 July: SMBH Workshop

Morning Chair: Dick Manchester

  • 9:00 ­ 9:15 Ryan Shannon ­ Welcome
  • 9:15 ­ 9:35 Ron Ekers ­ Evidence from the radio for supermassive black holes
  • 9:35­ 9:55 Dustin Madison ­ Detecting gravitational waves with pulsar timing arrays
  • 9:55 ­ 10:15 Alberto Sesana ­ Gravitational wave signatures of SMBH binaries detectable by pulsar timing arrays
  • 10:15 ­ 10:30 Hannah Middleton ­ Implications of limits for galaxy merger rate
  • 10:30 ­ 11:00 Tea
  • 11:00 ­ 11:25 Anne Medling ­ Observational properties of centres of galaxies
  • 11:25 ­ 11:50 Sean McWilliams – implications of limits for dynamics of centres of galaxies
  • 11:50 ­ 12:30 Discussion: with morning speakers (moderated by Ryan Shannon)
  • 12:30 ­ 14:00 Lunch

Afternoon Char: Marta Burgay

  • 14:00 ­ 14:25 Chung Pei Ma – SMBHs within 100 Mpc as candidate GW sources
  • 14:25 ­ 14:45 Alister Graham – Evidence for SMBH binaries and M­sigma
  • 14:45 ­ 15:00 Giulia Savorgnan ­ Black­hole growth in early and late type galaxies
  • 15:00 ­ 15:15 Jordan Collier ­ Binary SMBH candidates
  • 15:15­15:45 Afternoon Tea
  • 15:45 ­ 16:00 Joe Simon ­Constraining Galaxy Evolution Parameters with PTA Observations
  • 16:00 ­ 16:20 Ray Norris ­ searching for SMBH binaries in future radio surveys
  • 16:20 ­ 17:00 Discussion with afternoon speakers moderated by Neil Cornish

Tuesday­Friday: IPTA Science Meeting

Tuesday 28 July

  • 09:00 ­ 09:10 Welcome & IPTA prize presentation
  • 09:10 ­ 09:30 IPTA project Updates: Clocks (George Hobbs) and Bursts with Memory (Dusty Madison)
  • Session: Gravitational waves: Detection and characterization Chair: Elizabeth Ferrara
    • 09:30 ­ 09:45 Pablo Rosado – Do we expect to see CW sources or the GWB first?
    • 09:45 ­ 10:00 Yan Wang – Coherent network analysis
    • 10:00 ­ 10:15 Xingjiang Zhu – Coherent searches for GWs
    • 10:15 ­ 10:30 Caterina Tiburzi – correlated signals in timing array measurements
    • 10:30 ­ 11:00 Tea
    • 11:00 ­ 11:15 Neil Cornish ­ Robust detection for PTAs
    • 11:15 ­ 11:30 Dusty Madison ­ Non­planar GWs
    • 11:30 ­ 11:45 Discussion: Rapid response to electromagnetically identified SMBH binaries (led Sean McWilliams)
    • 11:45­ 12:45 Session: IPTASC Provocative Discussion (led by George Hobbs)
    • 12:45 ­ 14:00 Lunch
  • Session: Data sets Chair: Paul Lasky
    • 14:00 ­ 14:20 Poster sparkler presentations
    • 14:20 ­ 14:35 David Nice ­ NANOGrav 9 year data release
    • 14:35 ­ 14:50 Matthew Kerr ­ PPTA DR2
    • 14:50 ­ 15:05 Nicolas Caballero ­ EPTA legacy data set and results
    • 14:05 ­ 15:20 Ryan Shannon ­ A straw­man plan for IPTA DR2
    • 15:20 ­ 15:50 Afternoon Tea
    • 15:50­16:00 Joris Verbiest (via skype) IPTA DR1
    • 16:00­17:00 Discussion: Plans for the next IPTA data set (led by Alberto Sesana)

Wednesday 29 July

  • 9:00 ­ 9:30 Project Updates: Continuous Wave Sources (Justin Ellis) and 1713 global project (Tim Dolch)
  • Session: Are our noise measurements consistent? Chair: Gemma Jannsen
    • 9:00 ­ 9:15 Nicolas Caballero – EPTA noise analysis
    • 9:15 ­ 9:30 Lindley Lentati – IPTA noise analysis
    • 10:00 ­ 10:15 Paul Lasky – Timing noise and time to detection
    • 10:15 ­ 10:30 Jim Cordes – Frequency dependent DM
    • 10:30 ­ 11:00 Tea
    • 11:00 ­ 11:15 Megan Jones – NANOGrav DM variations
    • 11:15 ­ 11:30 Bill Coles – The effects of the solar wind
    • 11:30 ­ 12:30 Provocative discussion: Do our data sets agree and why not? (Led by Joe Lazio)
  • Free afternoon

Thursday 30 July

  • 9:00­ 9:30 Project Updates: Stochastic/Anisotropic background projects (via skype from California)
  • Session: How do we incorporate new facilities into the IPTA? Chair: Duncan Lorimer
    • 9:30 ­ 9:45 Ramesh Bhat – MWA
    • 9:45 ­ 10:00 Stefan Oslowski ­ LOFAR
    • 10:00 ­ 10:15 Delphine Perrodin ­ LEAP
    • 10:15 ­ 10:30 Dick Manchester – Parkes UWB Project
    • 10:30 ­ 10:45 Ryan Lynch ­ VEGAS backend
    • 10:30 ­ 11:00 Tea
    • 11:00 ­ 11:15 Mike Keith – SKA searching
    • 11:15 ­ 11:30 Gemma Janssen ­ SKA timing
    • 11:30 ­ 11:45 Willem van Straten ­ SKA/meerKAT timing backends/central signal processors
    • 11:45 ­ 12:00 KJ Lee ­­ FAST/QTT
    • 12:15 ­ 12:30 Cherry Ng ­­ CHIME
    • 12:30 ­ 14:00 Lunch
  • Session: How do we ensure we have effective education and outreach projects? Chair: Cherry Ng
    • 14:00 ­ 14:15 Lisa Kohne ­ Outcomes of the PIRE project
    • 14:15 ­ 14:30 Ryan Lynch ­ NANOGrav outreach efforts
    • 14:30 ­ 14:45 Rob Hollow ­ Pulse@Parkes, internationalizing pulsar education for high­school and higher­education students.
    • 14:45­ 15:15 Provocative Discussion: Outreach ­­ coordinating efforts and evaluating our EPO programmes (led by Delphine Perrodin)
    • 15:15 ­ 15:45 Afternoon Tea
    • 15:45 ­ 16:00 Rutger van Haasteren ­ IPTA isotropic GWB project (via skype from Europe)
    • 16:00 ­ 16:15 Jeandrew Brink ­ MeerKAT update (via skype from South Africa)
    • 16:15 ­ 17:00 Provocative Discussion: Observing strategy for current and future timing­array activities? (led by Scott Ransom)

Thursday evening: Conference dinner

Friday 31 July

  • Topic: Applications of pulsar timing Chair: Ramesh Bhat
    • 9:30 ­ 9:45 Roy Smits ­ ARTS backend for Westerbork
    • 9:45 ­ 10:00 Xiaopeng You ­ Polarimetry of globular cluster pulsars
    • 10:00 ­ 10:15 Scott Ransom ­ NANOGrav shapiro delays
    • 10:15 ­ 10:30 David Nice ­ NANOGrav pulsar parameters
    • 10:30 ­ 11:00 Tea
    • 11:00 ­ 11:10 Joe Lazio ­ The Bridge
    • 11:10 ­ 12:30 Breaking news
    • 12:30­14:00 Lunch
  • Topic: What improvements can be made to timing? Chair: Megan deCesar
    • 14:00 ­ 14:15 Lindley Lentati – Profile­domain timing
    • 14:15 ­ 14:30 Matthew Kerr ­ RFI zapping
    • 14:30 ­ 14:45 George Hobbs – Simulation methods
    • 14:45 ­ 15:00 Scott Ransom ­ PINT
  • Topic: IPTA DR2
    • 15:00 ­ 15:15 Provisional limits on the GWB with a provisional second IPTA data release.
Finish by 4:00 pm so people can take train to Sydney (Note: Trackwork on Saturday means it will be more convenient to leave Blue Mountains Friday evening).