FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT

International Workshop on MAPPING OXYGEN IN THE UNIVERSE
Puerto de la Cruz (Tenerife, Spain)
14-18 May 2012

CONTACT

e-mail: oxygen2012 en iac.es
website: http://www.iac.es/congreso/oxygenmap

IMPORTANT DATES:

Pre-registration and abstract submission deadline         15 February 2012
Final list of participants and second announcement        15 March 2012
Deadline for payment of fees and hotel reservation       15 April 2012
Third Announcement                                                 1 May 2012
Conference                                                             14-18 May 2012

SCIENTIFIC RATIONALE:

Oxygen is the most abundant heavy element in the Universe. It is the most direct testimony of the history of star formation. The oxygen abundance is easily measured up to high redshifts through emission lines produced in the interstellar medium of star forming galaxies and through absorption lines observed on the linesight of bright, high redshift sources. Recently, there has been a large amount of studies on the determination of oxygen abundances in the local Universe, both in young and old stars, which have brought interesting constraints but also many questions. Among others, the oxygen abundance in the Sun is still lively debated. Studies of oxygen abundances from absorption lines in the local ISM as well as from emission lines from planetary nebulae and HII regions in Galactic and extragalactic Milky Way have also developed significantly. It is time to confront all these determinations and discuss thoroughly the biases and uncertainties to provide a firm ground for theories and models of chemical evolution of galaxies. This workshop would then not be principally one of "results" but rather one of "confrontations and discussions".

SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:

• Carlos Allende-Prieto Spain
• Fabio Bresolin US
• Leticia Carigi Mexico
• Richard Henry US
• Danny Lennon US
• Xiao-Wei Liu China
• Max Pettini UK
• Sergio Simon-Diaz Spain (co-chair)
• Grazyna Stasinska France (co-chair)

LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:

• Eva Bejarano
• Jorge Garcia-Rojas (co-chair)
• Sergio Simon-Diaz (co-chair)

SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION:

In order to keep with the spirit of a specialized workshop, we plan a total of not more than 60 participants, including the invited participants. Ample time will be reserved for contributed talks and informal discussions. In case that the number of preregistered persons exceeds the aimed maximum, the the SOC will have to select the participants on the basis of the abstract of their proposed contribution, so as to comply at best with the aim of the workshop. Students not proposing a talk will be chosen according to their motivation as expressed in the preregistration form. We do not plan any poster contributions. All the electronic presentations will be posted on our Website after the workshop. In order not to inflate the astronomical literature, we plan not to publish proceedings of the workshop. We hope, on the other hand, that the workshop will stimulate work to be published in main refereed astronomical journals. Possibly, we can negociate a review paper cosigned by interested participants, which would highlight the main results that will have been presented and the main questions that have been identified as requiring a solution.

GENERAL TOPICS

• Oxygen atomic data and modelling procedures in nebulae and stars
• Methods of oxygen abundance determination
• Oxygen in stellar atmospheres and the problem of mixing
• Oxygen in the interstellar medium and the problem of dust depletion
• Oxygen in ionized nebulae and the abundance discrepancy problem
• Comparison of oxygen abundances in the same site from various indicators (solar neighborhood, nearby galaxies)
• The oxygen abundance gradient and dispersion in the Milky Way and spiral galaxies
• The global oxygen abundance in spiral galaxies
• Proxies for oxygen abundances in elliptical galaxies
• Oxygen as an observational constraint for chemical evolution studies

INVITED TALKS AND SPEAKERS

- N. Prantzos (France) Why we need to map oxygen in the Universe and what accuracy do we need? (chemical evolution of galaxies, stellar evolution, exoplanets)

- S. Ekstrom (Switzerland) How well do we know oxygen yields from massive stars?

- A. Karakas (Australia) Oxygen production on the AGB and the relevance of planetary nebulae to map the oxygen abundance in galaxies

- M. Asplund (Germany) The solar oxygen abundance : a new standard

- H. Socas-Navarro (Spain) Alternative determinations of the solar oxygen abundance

- K. Lodders (US) Constraints on the solar oxygen abundance from meteorites, planets, and other planetary objects

- I. Ramirez (US) Oxygen abundance determinations in solar-type stars

- S. Andrievsky (Ukraine) Oxygen abundance determinations in cool giant stars

- N. Przybilla (Germany) Oxygen abundance determinations in A-supergiants

- M.A. Urbaneja (US) Oxygen abundance determinations in OB dwarfs and supergiants

- M. Rodriguez (Mexico) Temperature-based oxygen abundances in HII regions and PNe

- C. Morisset (Mexico) Oxygen abundances in ionized nebulae from photoionization model-fitting

- A. Peimbert (Mexico) Temperature fluctuations in ionized nebulae and their effect on the oxygen abundance determination

- L. Kewley (US) Strong-line methods for oxygen abundance determinations in giant HII regions and emission line galaxies

- R. Maiolino (Italy) Oxygen abundance determination at high redshift from emission lines

- E. Jenkins (US) The oxygen abundance in the local ISM from absorption lines

- M. Dessauges-Zavadzky (Switzerland) The oxygen abundances at high redshift from absorption lines

- K. Matsushita (Japan) The oxygen abundance from X-rays : methods and prospects

- C. Mendoza (Venezuela) The reliability of atomic data used for oxygen abundance determinations

- I. Cherchneff (Switzerland) Oxygen-rich dust production in the atmospheres of cool stars and in supernovae

- A. Jones (France) Oxygen-rich dust processing and evolution in the interstellar medium

- W. Henney (Mexico) Is oxygen well-mixed in the sites where it is observed ?

FEES:

The conference fee will be about 150-200 Euros. It will include welcome cocktail on Sunday evening, coffee breaks, lunches and several evening buffets, social programme and banquet. Details on how to pay the conference fees will be given in the second announcement.

CONFERENCE LOCATION:

The conference will take place in the city of Puerto de la Cruz, on the Island of Tenerife in Canary Islands (Spain). The scientific sessions will take place in the conference hall of the hotel Vallemar (http://www.vallemar.com), where all the participants will be catered. The hotel is located in front of the ocean and next to the famous pool complex known as "Lago Martiánez".

TRANSPORTATION

The Canary Islands have excellent direct air connections to major Spanish cities, as well as to a number of European destinations.

ACCOMODATION

We have made a block reservation at the hotel Vallemar. Prices for single/double rooms will be approximately 50/60 euros per night including breakfast. More information on lodging will be provided in the second announcement.

SOCIAL EVENTS

We are preparing a rich social programme to discover Tenerife, its landscapes, culture and cuisine in a friendly atmosphere. More on this in the next announcements. The social events will be entirely covered by the fees.

PUBLIC OUTREACH PROGRAMME

We plan a public conference on Oxygen and Life (in spanish, with translation), at the Science Museum of la Laguna, followed by a cocktail. Transportation will be organized for the workshop participants.

PRE-REGISTRATION AND ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

If interested in attending the conference, please pre-register and provide an abstract of your proposed contribution using the pre-registration form to be found on the web at: http://www.iac.es/congreso/oxygenmap

The deadline for pre-registration is 15 February, 2012