• Starting date: 2025/06/16
  • End: 2025/06/20

    • LOCATION: Haus Sexten - Via Dolomiti 45, 39030, Sexten

    DETAILS

    The formation and evolution of galaxies is a complex sequence of physical processes leading to the sources we observe across different epochs of the Universe. Among these processes, mergers play a crucial role. Whether simple accretion events or minor and major mergers, these interactions can dramatically influence the nature, shape, and physical properties of the resulting galaxies, making them vastly different from their progenitors.

    Mergers can change the morphology of galaxies, for example, transforming a spiral galaxy into an elliptical galaxy, and altering the distribution of stars and gas within them. Another consequence is that these violent interactions can compress gas clouds, triggering intense starburst periods and enriching the remnant with new stars. Moreover, gas funnelled to the galaxy’s core during mergers can fuel the central engine, igniting an active galactic nucleus (AGN), which can significantly influence galaxy evolution by either inhibiting or promoting star formation. Lastly, merger events affect the distribution of dark matter, reorganising the surrounding dark matter halo and modifying their internal dynamics and rotation.

    In the beautiful setting of the Dolomites where Haus Sexten is located, we will discuss how galaxies continuously evolve through these processes, contributing to the diversity of shapes and characteristics observed in the Universe over cosmic time. In the following, we list some fundamental questions we aim to address during the conference.

    • What is our current understanding of how mergers change the morphology of the galaxies we observe in the present-day Universe?
    • To what extent do mergers contribute to new star formation and alter the chemical distribution in galaxies at different epochs?
    • How is the supermassive black hole (SMBH) of galaxies affected by accretion events and mergers? Furthermore, how do mergers influence SMBH–galaxy co-evolution and establish the observed scaling relations?
    • How does our ability to determine the rate of galaxy mergers across different epochs and environments impact our understanding of cosmic structure formation?
    • What role do mergers play in the evolution of the size, velocity dispersion and other physical properties of galaxies?
    • Can our current approaches to studying galaxy evolution, whether they are physically motivated high-resolution cosmological simulation, semi-analytical models, or semi-empirical methods, faithfully reproduce the assembly history of galaxies at different epochs?
    • What are the most plausible scenarios for assembling the massive galaxies that telescopes such as JWST are observing early in the history of the Universe?
    • How can diverse mergers be most effectively identified across various cosmic epochs through machine learning, visual classification, or morphological statistics?

    IMPORTANT DATES

    • Abstract submission opening: coming soon
    • Registration opening: coming soon
    • Abstract submission deadline: TBA
    • Program announcement: TBA
    • Registration deadline: TBA

    RELATED FILES

    FEE

    350 Eur

    WORKSHOP CODE FOR PAYMENT
    DD25

    ORGANIZERS

    Scientific Organising Committee (in alphabetic order)

    Carlo Cannarozzo (chair, New York University Abu Dhabi)
    Benjamin Davis (New York University Abu Dhabi)
    Thales Gutcke (University of Hawaii)
    Susan Kassin (Space Telescope Science Institute)
    Claudia Lagos (University of Western Australia)
    Andrea Macciò (New York University Abu Dhabi)
    Mireia Montes (Instituto de Ciencias del Espacio)
    Carlo Nipoti (Università di Bologna)
    Salvatore Quai (Università di Bologna)
    Aldo Rodriguez-Puebla (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)