Science Case for Next Generation Optical/Infrared Interferometric Facilities
(the post VLTI era)

23 - 25 August 2004, Liège University,
Colonster Castle, Sart Tilman

37th Liège International Astrophysical Colloquium

Among the planned activities of the Optical Interferometry Network of the European Interferometry Initiatives (EII, OPTICON/FP6), one of the workpackages (WP3) directly aims at developing the vision for a next-generation interferometric facility (post VLTI era) See the link : http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~eurinterf/Activities/OPTICON-NA/index.html
http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~eurinterf/) .

The Network Activity (NA) Committee of EII, presently composed of Eric Bakker, Andrzej Niedzielski, Romain Petrov, Andreas Quirrenbach and Jean Surdej, has proposed to the EII board to first address the science cases for the next generation interferometric facility.

Given the present existing astronomical facilities (ground & space; including existing interferometric facilities), we should wonder what will be the most challenging science areas to be addressed with interferometers in the future (i.e. within 15 years from now). It has been decided to present the science cases during a 3 day scientific workshop entitled "Science Case for Next Generation Optical/Infrared Interferometric Facilities" (the post VLTI era)” to be organized on 23-25 August in Liège.



Monday 23 August

09:00-09:45   Registration + Coffee
09:45-10:00   Welcome (J. Surdej)
10:00-11:00 Invited Talk Basic and future concepts of interferometers, including future
technologies and reconstruction imaging techniques (P.Riaud)
11:00-12:00 Invited Talk Filled Apertures - OWL phase A report (Ph. Dierickx)
12:00-12:30   More waves to come: the VLTI, la OLA and beyond (F. Delplancke)
12:30-14:00  
Lunch

14:00-15:00 Invited Talk Circumstellar material (S. Wolf)
15:00-15:30   ELSA: an Extremely Large Synthesis Array (A. Quirrenbach)
15:30-16:00  
Coffee

16:00-17:00 Invited Talk Exoplanets and high dynamics objects (J. Schneider)
17:00-17:30   KEOPS: an Imaging Synthesis Optical Array at Dome C in Antarctica
(F.X. Schmider)


Tuesday 24 August

09:00-10:00 Invited Talk Active Galactic Nuclei (A. Marconi)
10:00-10:30   NIR interferometry of the Seyfert galax NGC 1068:
present interferometric results and future goals (G. Weigelt)
10:30-11:00  
Coffee

11:00-12:00 Invited Talk Extragalactic astrophysics (D. Fraix-Burnet)
12:00-12:30   Observing galactic centers at different redshifts (M. Wittkowski)
12:30-14:00  
Lunch

14:00-15:00 Invited Talk Stellar activity and asteroseismology (F.X. Schmider)
15:00-15:30   Exoplanet science from the high Antarctic plateau (V. Coudé du Foresto)
15:30-16:00  
Coffee

16:00-17:00 Invited Talk Stellar imaging (O. von der Luehe)
17:00-17:30   Towards snapshot imaging with hypertelescopes:
progress of the 20-meter prototype (V. Borkowski & H. Le Coroller)


Wednesday 25 August

09:00-10:00 Invited Talk Binary and multiple stars (F. Verbunt)
10:00-10:30   APreS-MIDI, a concept for Aperture Synthesis Imaging in the MID-Infrared
with the VLTI and Future Interferometers (F. Przygodda)
10:30-11:00  
Coffee

11:00-12:00 Invited Talk Fundamental stellar parameters (M. Wittkowski)
12:00-12:30   Pegase: a space interferometer for the spectrophotometry of Pegasides
(O. Absil)
12:30-14:00  
Lunch

14:00-15:00   Round table with AMOS engineers/physicists
15:00-16:00   General conclusions (P. Léna)
16:00-...   Bus transportation to AMOS,
visit of their facilities (Auxiliary Telescopes)
and small reception