[MODEST] MODEST-4 and future MODEST meetings

[Piet Hut]

Dear MODEST colleague,

Greetings from the Geneva/Lausanne Observatory, where we just
concluded our fourth MODEST meeting, after two and a half days
of discussions and many short impromptu presentations.

TODAY: MODEST-4 concluded

The meeting started with reports from the 7 working group leaders 
attending the meeting, and continued with parallel sessions covering
a variety of topics, including:

Star-star collisions
Dynamical modelling
Monte Carlo simulations
SPH modelling techniques
Galactic Nuclei
Colour Magnitude Diagrams, and   
the Virtual Observatory.

Many of the presentations were spontaneous.  The discussion on
Tuesday revealed an interest in learning more about the effect of
stellar rotation and the Coimbra experiment on stellar population
modelling (see ASP Conf Series Vol. 274). This led to the recruitment
of two local astronomers, Georges Meynet and Thibault Lejeune, who
both graciously contributed talks to the Wednesday morning session
on these respective topics.

THIS SUMMER: MODEST-5

Alison had asked us to discuss the structure of the next meeting.
The general feeling was that it would be good to pick a specific
star cluster, perhaps an open cluster, and to formulate specific
questions about that cluster; e.g. model the evolution of this
cluster in an attempt to reconstruct the number and properties
of the blue stragglers observed for that cluster.  Once we have
formulated such a question, observers can put in a proposal for
extra observing time to narrow down the parameters for that cluster,
while theorists can experiment with different stellar evolution input
data connected to different stellar dynamics integrators, to determine
the spread in simulation histories, starting from similar initial
conditions.

To pick a cluster, and to establsh the rules of the game, including
the specific questions that simulations will address, will be an
interesting exercise in itself.  Perhaps we can use MODEST-5 to have
a few round-table discussions to answer these questions, and then
decide upon a time table for getting the answers.  Two years may be
a good time frame, both for putting in observational proposals and
to set up and run the simulations.

THE FUTURE

Toward the end of our meeting, we had some extensive discussions
about the organization of future MODEST meetings.  There was a
general sense that it would be preferable to have a major meeting
once a year, in the summer, in addition to an arbitrary number of
more regional satellite meetings.  That way, anybody will have a
high chance to meet each other during those yearly meetings, while
they can attend the satellite meetings whenever it is convenient.

Examples of satellite meetings would be educational workshops
and summer schools, as well as regional research collaborations,
and possibly special MODEST sessions within other conferences.
An example of an educational workshop is the one organized in
Strasbourg, France, by Christian Boily, during 19-22 March 2004
(see "http://astro.u-strasbg.fr/scyon/School").  An example of
regional collaboration meetings would be those that will be held
under the umbrella of the MODEST European Network Proposal, if
that would be funded.

A consequence of switching to a yearly meeting schedule will be
that the previously scheduled Heidelberg meeting of Jan. 2005
will be postponed to a later date.  The new schedule for future
meetings will be:

MODEST-5: McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada, August 11-14, 2004
MODEST-6: Northwestern University, IL, USA, August 29-31, 2005 
MODEST-7: Charles University of Prague, Czech Republic, August 2006

The last addition was voted for, to coincide with the General Assembly
that will take place in Prague in 2006.  We are planning to apply for
IAU Symposium status, with as meeting title "Dense Stellar Systems".

Christian Boily
Piet Hut
Jamie Lombardi
Georges Meylan