[MODEST] MODEST-5 Meeting Information

[Alison Sills]

Hi everyone, 

I would like to formally invite you to register (informally -- send me an 
email) for the MODEST-5 workshop in Hamilton, Ontario in August. A 
description of the workshop is attached below. It should be quite 
interesting, and lively!

Also, would you please extend the invitation to friends and colleagues who 
might be interested in contributing to this particular challenge. 
Observers will be particularly helpful. 

For travel and hotel information, go to the MODEST-5 website 
(http://www.manybody.org/modest/Workshops/modest-5.html). Most of you will 
be flying into Toronto's Pearson International Airport. I recommend that 
you consider staying in the student dorms at McMaster (they're quite 
nice, as dorms go) and taking advantage of the deal we've set up with 
Airways Transit, the shuttle service between Pearson and McMaster.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. 

Looking forward to seeing you in August!

Cheers, 

alison sills

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MODEST-5: A Challenge to the MODEST Community

In June 2002, a group of interested researchers gathered at the American 
Museum of Natural History in New York to talk about modelling dense 
stellar systems. In particular, representatives of the stellar dynamics, 
hydrodynamics and stellar evolution fields discussed how best to work 
together to solve problems of mutual interest. The MODEST group was born.

We have had two years, and four workshops, to outline computational 
frameworks, discuss areas of strength and weakness, and to ponder 
observational consequences of our work. Now, at our fifth workshop, it is 
time to put our money where our mouth is.

MODEST-5 will be held at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada 
on August 11-14, 2004. During those four days, the challenge is to:

   1. Identify one cluster (probably an open cluster) which is 
sufficiently interesting dynamically, and also not too difficult to 
observe and simulate.

   2. Formulate a small number of specific, answerable, MODEST questions 
about that cluster. (e.g. Explain the number and nature of the blue 
stragglers in the cluster.)

   3. Identify ways to answer those questions, both theoretically and 
observationally. Also identify tests of simulations that would prove 
useful (e.g. What difference would different stellar evolution treatments 
make?)

   4. Form collaborations to answer the questions, and begin the work 
required (e.g.  writing observing proposals, modifying codes, etc.) 

There is a deadline for these projects - there will be a MODEST meeting in
summer 2006, probably associated with the IAU General Assembly in Prague
in August. Part of that meeting will be devoted to presenting the answers
to the questions asked at MODEST-5.

An underlying goal of this workshop is to draw from as many groups as we 
possibly can: stellar dynamicists, stellar evolutionists, observers, and 
especially people who have feet in more than one camp. We would like to 
forge as many productive collaborations as we can, with the idea of having 
those collaborations move from studying the one chosen cluster to applying 
their work to all kinds of dense stellar systems.

 We look forward to having a wide range of people attend the MODEST-5 
meeting, and aim to make it relevant and interesting to all participants, 
as well as a useful exercise in furthering our MODEST goals. We invite all 
interested researchers to join us.

In keeping with the spirit of an informal workshop, there will be no 
registration fee, nor will we have any means to offer financial assistance 
to the participants.