To the President of IAU Division IV Stars Dainis Dravins Lund Observatory Lund University Box 43, SE - 221 00 Lund Sweden E-mail: dainis@astro.lu.se and the Assistant General Secretary Karel A. van der Hucht SRON, Ntl Inst for Space Research Sorbonnelaan 2 NL - 3584 CA Utrecht the Netherlands Email: K.A.van.der.Hucht@sron.nl Concerns: Letter of Intent for proposing an IAU Symposium to be held at the IAU GA in Prague in 2006 Dear Dainis Dravins and Karel van der Hucht, we are writing to you as President of IAU Division IV - Stars - and as IAU Assistant General Secretary, respectively, about our intention to submit a proposal for an IAU Symposium to be held at the next General Assembly of the IAU in Prague in 2006. The proposed title of the meeting is: "Convection in Astrophysics". This may be slightly modified before submission of the actual proposal. Convection is widespread throughout the Universe. This conference will deal with theoretical and observational aspects of convection in a wide variety of objects from our own Solar system to our Galaxy and beyond, through the following preliminiary list of topics (ordered as sessions which are grouped according to physical processes): A - Modelling and simulation techniques of convection (general introduction, history, current models, simulations, critical discussion, advanced techniques); B - Observing convection (history; sun, planets, stars; in situ or from ground/space through spectra and photometry); C - Dry convection & boundary layers - differences to free convection (objects for discussion include Venus, Mars, Titan, differences to atmospheric convection in gas giants); D - Convection & radiation (RHD, sun, stellar convection, planets); E - Cloud convection and reacting convection (Venus, gas giants, brown dwarfs; also supernovae, and AGB / post-AGB phases); this listing is quite spread and may require splitting as the physics is rather diverse, for instance, C and E together may become 3 slightly shorter sessions; F - Convective mixing (overshooting, supernovae, stellar evolution); G - Semiconvection / diffusive convection, metallic / salt fingers (which occur in stars, planets, interacting binaries); sessions F and G may be unified into one single session in the draft proposal; H - Convection & pulsation (helio- & asteroseismology, Cepheids, white dwarfs, solar-like stars - results from [then] recent space missions); I - Convection & rotation (meridional flow and deep convection in stars and gas giants; storms in planetary atmospheres); J - MHD convection (MHD convection at the solar / stellar surface, the solar dynamo, the tachocline, convection in magnetic stars). Further topics (e.g. convection in neutron stars) may be added while others may be removed: changes to the topics of some of these sessions and other regroupings are expected before the programme is finalised. A core SOC is proposed and currently consists, in alphabetical order, of Kwing Lam Chan (HKUST, Hongkong, China) Francesca D'Antona (Monte Porzio Obs., Italy) Tom Duvall (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA) Andrew Ingersoll (Geol. & Planetary Sci., Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USA) Jiri Kubat (Astron. Inst., ASCR, Ondrejov, Czech Republic) Friedrich Kupka (MPI for Astrophysics, Garching, Germany) Aake Nordlund (Univ. of Copenhagen, Denmark) Ian Roxburgh (Queen Mary, Univ. of London, London, UK) Barry Smalley (Keele University, Staffordshire, UK) Sami Solanki (MPS, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany) Juri Toomre (JILA, Boulder, CO, USA) Sylvie Vauclair (Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees, Toulouse, France) The current co-chairs are Friedrich Kupka and Ian Roxburgh from the proposed SOC. The proposed SOC will be completed with two or three additional colleagues to ensure a broad coverage of the scientific areas of interest. We propose that the symposium be one of the conferences held during the IAU general assembly in Prague in 2006. We prefer to hold the meeting during the first half of the assembly, although we are aware that adjustments may have to be made to avoid undesired overlaps with some of the other symposia suggested for the same period, which some participants also wish to attend. We apply for symposium status for the meeting, because the range of topics addresses several fields in astrophysics which are assigned to a number of IAU Divisions as mentioned below. As the topic of the meeting is of direct relevance to most branches of stellar astrophysics and because the Presidents and/or Vice-Presidents of IAU Commissions 35 and 36 (tbc) have expressed their support and intention to act as proposing commissions, we propose that IAU Division IV be the coordinating division. We would expect support from other IAU Divisions, namely II, III, V, VII, and perhaps VI through several of their Commissions which we intend to approach to act either as additional proposing commissions or as supporting ones. Yours sincerly, Friedrich Kupka on behalf of the proposed SOC Kwing Lam Chan Francesca D'Antona Tom Duvall Andrew Ingersoll Jiri Kubat Friedrich Kupka Aake Nordlund Ian Roxburgh Barry Smalley Sami Solanki Juri Toomre Sylvie Vauclair --------------- Contact Address: ********************************************************************* Dr. Friedrich Kupka tel: +49-(0)89-30000-2282 Research Associate fax: +49-(0)89-30000-2235 Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics e-mail: fk@mpa-garching.mpg.de Karl-Schwarzschild Str. 1 http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~fk/ 85741 Garching Germany *********************************************************************