SuperVirtual 2021: FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT

Dear colleagues,

We are delighted to announce the International Conference “SuperVirtual 2021 - From Common to Exotic Transients”. The meeting will be held in virtual mode from November 15th to 19th, 2021.

The primary goal of this meeting is to provide a platform for an up-to-date discussion in the field of supernovae and associated transients. Since the beginning of the pandemic there has been a lack of such international dialogue prompting a conference in this field. Therefore, we believe it will be very beneficial for the community to have a space to discuss current discoveries and results from both observations and theory (see more details below in the Scientific Rationale). SuperVirtual 2021 aims to organise a conference that is as inclusive and participatory as possible. It is planned that both the final selection of topics and that of contributed speakers will make significant use of participant input - more details of this will be circulated at a later date. The exact time zone for the conference will also be determined at a later date, as its decision will depend on the geographic location of participants and speakers, while at the same time we will attempt to find a schedule that is convenient to as many attendees as possible.

For more information, please visit the conference website.

https://sites.google.com/view/supervirtual2021

If you wish to receive updates on SuperVirtual 2021, please register your email address here.

https://forms.gle/Q9fgKniGRQHhpqY39

Organization committee

Joe Anderson (European Southern Observatory, Chile)

Melina Cecilia Bersten (National University of La Plata, Argentina)

Janet Ting-Wan Chen (Stockholm University, Sweden)

Morgan Fraser (University College Dublin, Ireland)

Raffaella Margutti (University of California, Berkeley, USA)

Takashi Moriya (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan)

Scientific Rationale

Wide-field transient surveys are currently delivering large statistical samples of supernovae (SNe), while also discovering peculiar and exotic events. Samples of ‘standard’ core-collapse events afford strong constraints on their progenitor properties and explosion mechanisms. Meanwhile, the discovery of peculiar explosions often challenges our application of standard SN physics to such emerging classes. SuperVirtual 2021 will address many of these developments - providing a review of SN observations and physics, while exploring the limits of our current understanding of the processes driving SN diversity.

There is now strong consensus that the majority of hydrogen-rich SNe II arise from massive red supergiant stars. However, there is still disagreement on the exact mapping from progenitor and explosion properties to transient characteristics. The last decade has seen mounting evidence that at least a significant fraction of stripped-envelope-SNe arise from binary systems, although which envelope-mass stripping process dominates for which progenitors is still debated. In addition, it now appears that ejecta-CSM interaction is not only important for our understanding of narrow-line SNeIIn, but may also be critical for many other SN types - especially at early times in their evolution. This understanding is being enhanced by advances in survey and follow up capabilities - observations of which will be discussed at this meeting.

The number of ‘non-standard’ SNe also continues to grow. Samples now exist of exotic explosions such as SLSNe and SNeIbn. However, in the former it is still unclear which powering mechanism enables such large luminosities, while the properties of the latter challenge our understanding of late-time stellar evolution. SuperVirtual 2021 will motivate discussion on the state of the art of the explosion physics and progenitor evolution required to explain these events. There are also a number of classes where only a few well-observed events exist. ‘Fast transients’ (coming in different flavours with different nomenclature - e.g. ‘FBOTs’) have timescales making them difficult to observe, but additionally have properties that are difficult to understand without invoking exotic physical scenarios. One of the most recent additions to the SN family is the SNIcn class, which further stretches the family of SNe that are significantly affected by ejecta-CSM interaction. Finally, together with these new classes, a larger number of SNe are discovered with specific features that also require an extension of any standard SN model - e.g. short timescale modulations in light curve shapes.

A full understanding of the SN phenomenon and its diversity is only possible through comparing transient observations with predictions from explosion models and stellar evolution. In SuperVirtual 2021 SN observations will be confronted with the latest modelling of stellar explosions to survey the current landscape of SNe; their numerous different classes; and their progenitor populations.