FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT

ESO Workshop on:

"Obscured AGN across Cosmic Time"

Seeon, Bavaria, Germany, 5-7 June 2007

http://www.eso.org/agnii2007


SCIENTIFIC RATIONALE

Current deep surveys, notably in X-rays and the mid-IR, are making it 
possible to carry out a census of essentially all the luminous AGN in 
the universe. By penetrating the obscuration that, in Type 2 sources, 
hides the nuclear regions in the UV to the near-IR spectrum, these new 
surveys are finding the radio quiet counterparts of the powerful radio 
galaxies.

The completion of such a census has substantial cosmological 
significance since it will provide the foundation for identifying the 
role of AGN feedback in the galaxy formation process. The Type 2 sources 
are of particular value here since, by acting as their own coronographs, 
they facilitate the study of the star formation activity and the 
investigation of the correlated growth of the black hole and the host 
galaxy.

While radio galaxies - which are being used to trace the massive galaxy 
population at all epochs - have been studied intensively for the past 40 
years, their radio quiet counterparts beyond the local universe are only 
now being discovered in substantial numbers. The workshop aims to bring 
together the established radio galaxy community with the students of the 
radio quiet sources and so help to elucidate the effects of the 
(possibly) different host galaxies and environment and those of the 
powerful radio jets.


SCIENTIFIC TOPICS

1 Multiwavelength identification of Type 2 AGN
 . X-ray selection
 . Optical spectroscopy
 . Mid-IR selection
 . Submillimeter galaxies
 . Radio selection

2 Unification Schemes
 . Structure and origin of obscuration
 . Connection to Type 1 AGN
 . Low luminosity obscured AGN
 . Detailed studies of local AGN

3 AGN feedback processes

4 Host galaxy properties
 . star formation
 . masses
 . M-sigma relation

5 Ly-alpha blobs and haloes - Extended emission

6 Large scale environments

7 Future instruments


LOCATION

The conference will be held at Kloster Seeon, a recently renovated 10th 
century benedictine monastery near lake Chiemsee. This state-of-the-art 
conference center includes a 3-star hotel with 88 rooms and a restaurant 
proposing excellent cuisine with regional specialities. Seeon is located 
halfway between Munich and Salzburg at the foothills of the southern 
Bavarian Alps.

Detailed information about the venue can be found at 
http://www.kloster-seeon.de/seeon_engl/index.html


PARTICIPATION

The conference will be limited to 120 participants. The conference 
registration fee will be 100 Euros (TBC). Full board at the conference 
hotel costs 131.50 Euros per day. We foresee no proceedings and no 
poster session.

ORGANISERS

SOC: Jacqueline Bergeron (IAP), Carlos De Breuck (ESO, co-Chair), Robert 
Fosbury (ST-ECF), Guinevere Kauffmann (MPA), Julian Krolik (JHU), Ari 
Laor (Technion), Patrick Ogle (SSC), Steve Rawlings (Oxford), Daniel 
Stern (JPL), Wil van Breugel (LLNL), Joel Vernet (ESO, co-Chair), 
Montserrat Villar-Martin (IAA)

LOC: Carlos De Breuck, Joel Vernet, Robert Fosbury, Vicenzo Mainieri, 
Christina Stoffer, Pamela Bristow, Britt Sjoeberg


Please circulate this message to other interested colleagues.

Carlos De Breuck and Joel Vernet
On behalf of the LOC/SOC