Second announcement of
Summer Schoool: New Era of the Cosmic Distance Scale

This is the second announcement concerning the Summer School on the Cosmic Distance Scale which will be held in the University of Tokyo, Japan, from Mon 29 June to Fri 3 July 2015. The registration is now open on our web site. This school will cover a wide range of distance measurement techniques from trigonometric parallaxes to cosmological distance measurements and related scientific topics. Distinguished lecturers in various fields will give dedicated lectures on the basics and cutting edge of the field of distance measurement as well as on expected future developments.

Web Site

http://stella.astron.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/CDSchool/

School Period

June 29--July 3, 2015

Venue

Hongo Campus of the University of Tokyo
[Access Map]

Language

English

Invited Lecturers

Nabila Aghanim	- Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
Giuseppe Bono	- Theoretical breakthroughs for radial variables
Richard de Grijs	- Introduction/Summary and outlook to the future
Gerard Gilmore	- Gaia: applications to the distance scale
Shrinivas Kulkarni	- Supernovae
Barry Madore	- Population II distance indicators
Francois Mignard	- Gaia: Principles and Techniques
Takeo Minezaki	- Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs)
Grzegorz Pietrzynski	- Eclipsing binaries
Mark Reid	- VLBI parallaxes
Sherry Suyu	- Gravitational lensing
Masahiro Takada	- Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAOs)
Patricia Whitelock	- Asymptotic Giant Branch Variables
Daisuke Yonetoku	- Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs)

Participants

We will mainly consider PhD course and master course students as well as early-career postdocs.
The expected number of the participants is 80 including both international (~40) and domestic (~40) attendees.
We will likely receive registration requests from senior researchers, but will give priority to younger participants in our selection.

Participant Presentations

We call for both oral and poster presentations by participants.
There will be slots for a limited number of oral/poster presentations by participants, but selection will be made based on the abstracts and other information provided at registration.

Registration

Please make the registration on our web site. Applications for participant presentations and travel supports can be also submitted. If you are a student, please provide the information on your supervisor or a person who could serve as a reference whom we may contact before your participation is approved. If you are a postdoc, please provide the information on your PhD degree in the registration.

Registration Fee

For early registrations (by 30 Apr) : 22,000 JPY
For regular registrations (by 31 May) : 28,000 JPY
The registration fee includes all course material, refreshments during coffee breaks, a banquet dinner, and a half-day excursion trip. We will start receiving the payment of the registration fee on 12 May and all the participants should complete the payment by 31 May. Details for the payment will be announced later to those who registered.

Social Events

We will organise a banquet dinner and a half-day excursion trip around Tokyo city.

Important Dates

27 Mar 2015	--2nd announcement
27 Mar 2015	--Registration opens.
30 Apr 2015	--Application deadline for presentation abstracts, travel supports and early registration
12 May 2015	--Selection of presentations and travel supports will be notified.
12 May 2015	--Payment of the registration fee will open.
31 May 2015	--Deadline for regular registration
31 May 2015	--Deadline for payment of the registration fee
early June 2015	--3rd announcement
29 June 2015	--School starts.

Scientific Rationale

The Cosmic Distance Scale plays a fundamental role in a broad range of topics in astronomy. This is because it is not easy to know distances to astronomical objects and yet the distances are important to study many characteristics of the objects, such as their luminosities and masses, sizes and ages. An accurate distance scale is also required to reconstruct the structure and evolution of the Universe itself. Continuing efforts have been made to develop the Cosmic Distance Scale ever since very early pioneering works such as the first measurements of trigonometric parallaxes in the 19th Century and the discovery of the period-luminosity relation of Cepheids around a hundred years ago. There have been great advances in the recent decades; for example, supernova distance measurments enabled us to discover the accelerating expansion of the Universe. On the other hand, accurate measurements of the cosmic background radiation made it possible to study the structure and evolution of the Universe, which is one of the main goals to establish the Cosmic Distance Scale.

An important aspect in measuring astronomical distances is that no single method can be used for the entire range from the proximity within the solar system to the distant Universe. Therefore, it is important to keep the methods well-calibrated step-by-step from the starting point based on trigonometric parallax. In this context, this is a very exciting time because the Gaia will provide unprecedented measurements of parallaxes in the very near future, which will have a large impact on the entire range of the Cosmic Distance Scale. There are also high-impact projects ongoing and planned, which will deliver new insights into the structure of the Universe including several projects led by Japan such as JASMINE, VERA, and, SuMIRe. While recent developements of observational facilities and techniques have made it feasible to measure distances to objects across the entire range of the Universe, recent achievements have demonstrated that it is important to make the distance indicators both precise and robust. Such recent developements require us to understand the accuracy, range of application, and limits to each method and how it is related to other methods.

In this school, distinguished experts in various fields will give lectures on the basic principles of the methods to the expected progress in the near future. It will be a good opportunity to share a broad perspective on the Cosmic Distance Scale among young astronomers who will play an active role in a wide range of astronomy. The Cosmic Distance Scale indeed covers various fields of astronomy which are related to one another, and this school will also offer a chance to spend time with international young astronomers working in different subfields.

School Evaluation

We will conduct a process evaluation of the summer school in collaboration with and endorsed by the International Astronomical Union's Office of Astronomy for Development through East Asian Regional Office of Astronomy for Development (EA-ROAD). The evaluation process will consist of asking prospective participants to answer a set of questions to gauge their level of understanding prior to the school, followed by a similar exercise towards the end of the school. This evaluation will offer us an opportunity to measure changes in participants' knowledge and understanding. This collaboration with the EA-ROAD will be useful in developing a framework to assess the efficacy of future summer schools supported by the International Astronomical Union.

Committees

SOC:
Giuseppe Bono	(Università di Roma Tor Vergata)
Richard de Grijs	(Kavli Institute, Peking University)
Mamoru Doi	(Co-chair; Institute of Astronomy, the University of Tokyo)
Naoteru Gouda	(National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)
Mareki Honma	(National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)
Noriyuki Matsunaga	(Co-chair; Department of Astronomy, the University of Tokyo)
Takeo Minezaki	(Institute of Astronomy, the University of Tokyo)
Ken'ichi Nomoto	(Kavli IPMU, the University of Tokyo)
Hiromoto Shibahashi	(Department of Astronomy, the University of Tokyo)
Naotaka Suzuki	(Kavli IPMU, the University of Tokyo)
Tomonori Totani	(Department of Astronomy, the University of Tokyo)
Yuzuru Yoshii	(Institute of Astronomy, the University of Tokyo)
LOC:
Laura Inno	(Università di Roma Tor Vergata)
Noriyuki Matsunaga	(Chair; Department of Astronomy, the University of Tokyo)
Takeo Minezaki	(Institute of Astronomy, the University of Tokyo)
Tomoki Morokuma	(Institute of Astronomy, the University of Tokyo)
Nobuyuki Sakai	(National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)
Takuji Tsujimoto	(National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)

Sponsors

This summer school has received funding from the following programmes (more information such as grant numbers are available in our web site).

• - Ito International Research Center Symposium
• - The University of Tokyo, School of Science, RESCEU
• - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
• - Foundation for Promotion of Astronomy
• - European Union's Seventh Framework Programme
• - Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the JSPS
• - Others to be confirmed.

Contact

LOC - cdschool_loc (at) astron.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp