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Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2010 22:47:50 +0100 From: SF2A Subject: sf2a : vos dernieres nouvelles

Message SF2A No 450 - 06/12/10

Sur le web: http://www.sf2a.asso.fr/spip.php?rubrique7 http://www.sf2a.asso.fr/spip.php?article286

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Foreground conference (FGC2011) - "Understanding Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds: A road to success for cosmological experiments", 23 - 27 May 2011, in Zadar, Croatia ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Currently, there are several cosmological experiments (planned and ongoing) that use low frequency radiation to study the structure, the evolution, and the origin of our Universe. Among those are cosmic microwave background radiation experiments (e.g. Planck satellite) and the redshifted 21cm line of neutral hydrogen from the epoch of reionization (e.g. LOFAR, GMRT, MWA & SKA). In addition to the main scientific goals of each experiment, they all have one more thing in common: prominent Galactic and extragalactic foreground emission that challenges the observations. Therefore, the success of these cosmological observations relies on our understanding of the foregrounds and development of good foreground removal techniques. Obviously, studying the physical origin of these foregrounds, whether Galactic or extra-galactic, constitute a very interesting and exciting field in its own right.

The aim of this meeting is to bring together scientists interested in three main topics: - Physics and astrophysics of the low frequency Galactic and extra-galactic foregrounds; - influence of these foregrounds on the CMB and EoR observations; - foreground removal techniques.

During the meeting the observational constraints of the Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds will be reviewed both in total and polarized intensity. We will discuss the physics of the foregrounds and their properties (e.g. Galactic magnetic field, ISM, Faraday rotation, cosmic ray distribution, disk-halo connections and source counts). Finally, we will discuss mathematical techniques to fit and remove spatial and spectral foreground structures.

Registration is open now. Details about the conference, logistics and registration can be found at this URL : http://www.astron.nl/fgc2011

On behalf of the organizing committee, Vibor Jelic (ASTRON)

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