Objective
Detecting gravitational waves has been a dream for a long time
in the field of physics and astronomy, and recent developments
make us very confident of it becoming a reality. In particular,
we have reached the stage where we can set out a concrete plan
for a large-scale interferometer which should be able to detect
gravitational waves from plausibly expected sources. We wish to
establish the field of "gravitational wave astronomy"
which will afford new knowledge of the Universe that cannot be
obtained from other more traditional techniques such as optical
and radio astronomy.
Several projects have already started throughout the world for
the construction of large- scale laser interferometric gravitational
wave detectors such as those of LIGO, VIRGO, and GEO. We in Japan
started the project , called the TAMA project, to develop a laser
interferometer with a baseline of 300m (TAMA300) in 1994; this
year, 1999 is the final year of this five-year project.
The workshop will be organized similar to the first TAMA Workshop
in 1996. The emphasis of the workshop this time is on discussion
of the results of TAMA300 (TAMA300 is expected to be in the final
phase of completion at the time of the workshop), as well as on
the current status of other projects. In addition, there will
be discussions of both developed and developing advanced techniques
in the various fields necessary for improving the sensitivity
of gravitational wave detectors. The workshop will have twelve
invited speakers and some contributed papers, and no poster session.
Organization
Chair person: Prof. Yoshihide Kozai, the leader of the TAMA project
International Advisory Committee: B. Allen UWM B. Barish Caltech D. Blair UWA S. Bonazzola Observatoire Paris-Meudon V. Braginskii Moscow A. Brillet CNRS-Nice R. Byer Stanford M. Cerdonio Padova K. Danzmann Hannover S. Finn Penn State A. Giazotto INFN Pisa W. Hamilton LSU J. Hough Glasgow J. Sandeman ANU G. Sanders Caltech B. Schutz Potsdam K. Thorne Caltech G. Veneziano CERN R. Weiss MIT Program/Organizing Committee: M. Fujimoto NAOJ N. Kanda MUE S. Kawamura(Chair) NAOJ N. Kawashima Kinki Univ. Y. Kozai NAOJ K. Kuroda ICRR S. Meshkov Caltech N. Mio(Co-chair) Univ. Tokyo T. Nakamura YITP M. Ohashi ICRR R. Takahashi NAO K. Tsubono Univ. Tokyo K. Ueda ILS
Conference Site
The National Olympics Memorial Youth Center (NYC) in the city
of Tokyo has been chosen as the conference venue; this center
is a national youth educational facility established with the
aims of promoting the sound development of youth and youth education
in Japan and has an international conference hall and accommodations.
Detailed information can be obtained from the Web page of the
center; its URL is http://www.nyc.go.jp/eng/e00101.html.
Program
Topics that will be presented and discussed are as follows: project
status, laser and optics, interferometer, isolation and thermal
noise, theory and data analysis, others. Twelve invited talks
and contributed talks are planned. The TAMA Session is planned
for the second day of the workshop; the session will be held at
the campus of National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)
in Mitaka where the TAMA 300 detector is being developed and the
TAMA Site Tour is also scheduled.
The following is a tentative outline of the program.
Tuesday, Oct 19
Morning: opening talks, project status
Afternoon: laser and optics.
Wednesday, Oct 20
TAMA Session at NAOJ
Thursday, Oct 21
Morning: interferometer
Afternoon: isolation and thermal noise (banquet)
Friday, Oct 22
Morning: data analysis
Afternoon: other topics, closing talks.
List of Invited Speakers:
P. Bender JILA
J. Camp Caltech
V. Cook NSF
F. Frasconi INFN Pisa
P. Fritschel MIT
A. Heidmann Paris
S. Rowan Stanford
B. Sathyaprakash Cardiff University
S. Scott ANU
K. Strain Glasgow
B. Willke Hannover
J. Winterflood UWA
Attendance and Registration
Participants are required to submit a registration form to the
conference office before Jun 30th, 1999; the participants who
wish to contribute are also requested to submit the title, the
author(s) and the abstract within 200 words. The submission via
e-mail is strongly recommended. The registration fee is 20,000
yen ( including the fee for banquet and proceedings). The corresponding
address for the registration is as follows:
Secretariat of the 2nd TAMA Workshop National Astronomical Observatory of Japan Mitaka, Tokyo, 181-8588, JAPAN E-mail: tamaws@gravity.mtk.nao.ac.jp Phone: +81-422-34-3620 Fax: +81-422-34-3793
Accommodation
Since accommodation is limited, participants who want to stay
in the conference venue should specify the dates when they will
stay, in the registration form. Since, as mentioned above, NYC
is established for the education of young people, the accommodations
for men and women are separated. If this situation is inconvenient,
there are many hotels in the city of Tokyo that are not far from
NYC.
Further Information
Please contact the conference secretariat:
Secretariat of the 2nd TAMA Workshop National Astronomical Observatory of Japan Mitaka, Tokyo, 181-8588, JAPAN E-mail: tamaws@gravity.mtk.nao.ac.jp Phone: +81-422-34-3620 Fax: +81-422-34-3793 WWW: http://tamago.mtk.nao.ac.jp/tama/tamaws/tamaws2.html