XMC Workshop

Date & Time


The Large and Small Milky Clouds (LMC/SMC) are the Galaxy’s closest siblings and the largest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. Owing to large-scale stellar surveys, it is now possible to resolve stars and gas clouds in this tandem of galaxies, providing a window to explore galaxy formation in the lower-mass regime. On the one hand, these data enable both their star formation histories to be inferred (from deep photometry) and their chemical properties (from spectroscopy). On the other, the ability to measure the precise motions and positions of these stars allows for detailed dynamical studies of this pair of satellites; recent results have shown that the LMC has a substantial effect on the potential of the Galaxy, and is therefore important to model to capture dynamic disequilibrium effects in the Milky Way and within the LMC-SMC system.

In this workshop, we will discuss different topics related to the formation and evolution of the Milky Clouds (XMC). Specific emphasis will be placed on how we can use the resolved/IFU spectroscopic data from the Milky Way Mapper and Local Volume Mapper programmes  —part of the fifth phase of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-V)— in concert with deep, multi-band photometric data from SMASH, VMC, DELVE-MC, GASKAP, ULLYSES, and complementary missions/telescopes (e.g., Gaia, Rubin/LSST, JWST, Roman). We will also explore how to best compare these data to theoretical expectations from cosmological/numerical simulations, with the aim of developing current theoretical models and making predictions for key observables. This workshop will be discussion heavy and limited to 50 participants. It will also include a fraction of time allocated to review, keynote, and contributed talks and posters.

The main topics of the conference are:

 

  • Star formation history & chemical abundances
  • Stellar populations
  • Internal Dynamics
  • Milky Way-MC dynamics, orbital history, and MC analogues
  • Gas and interstellar medium
  • Young/massive stars and globular clusters

 

SOC: Danny Horta, David Nidever, Adrian Price-Whelan, Mary Putman, Nitya Kallivayalil, Kate Daniel, and Nico Garavito-Camargo

 

LOC: Danny Horta and Nico Garavito-Camargo

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