Team Meetings, workshops and Conferences

Meeting Rationale:

Thousands of strongly lensed galaxies have been discovered in the past 5-10 yr using multi-wavelength approaches, offering magnified views into the hearts of active galaxies in the early Universe. Strongly lensed objects and high angular resolution offer the only means to access 10-100s pc scale at z>1. So far, only a handful of systems have acquired multi-band ALMA observations, yet gas- and dust-rich, strongly lensed galaxies provide the laboratories to examine the conditions for star formation in detail with ALMA. 

This workshop will be led by the Planck All-Sky Survey to Analyze Gravitationally-lensed Extreme Starbursts (PASSAGES) international collaboration, including experts who have closely examined strongly lensed galaxies using ALMA and other radio interferometers. The PASSAGES team has now obtained close to 200 hours in total over the past 4-5 cycles of ALMA and ample multi-wavelength datasets with strong synergy to study these all-sky submm selected objects – which are among the most IR luminous objects across the entire sky, with apparent log(LIR)>14 Lsun. 

The high signal-to-noise ALMA data for this sample provides a wealth of follow-up for the collaboration to push the capabilities of strong lensing+galaxy evolution with ALMA in the next decade. Through the proposed workshop, we would like to share this work and receive feedback from experts in the community.

Objectives:

• Assess the highest ang. res. ALMA data in strong lensing fields to establish the best approaches for systematic follow-up. Only strongly lensed objects can maximize the scientific return from ALMA ( incl. long baselines and highest frequencies)

• Use ALMA data to discuss the limitations and benefits to different imaging and / or visibility plane methods with experts who can describe different approaches to perform strong lens modeling, kinematic modeling, non-LTE radiative transfer modeling, etc.

• Pushing the next science cases forward, charting science cases that are enabled by ALMA Wide-band Sensitivity Upgrades

**Mixed in with talks and discussion sessions (addressing how to maximise the high-z science output of ALMA in the WSU-generation), participants will benefit from NRAO-CV resources to practice reducing the PASSAGES ALMA data. We aim to enable a better understanding of how to systematically analyze the conditions of star formation in strongly lensed galaxies. 

**Experts from the PASSAGES team will facilitate the opportunity to apply self-calibration and different imaging procedures to a sub-set of strongly lensed systems to aid discussions to provide an experiential component for all who participate. The combination of hands-on imaging plus invited talks will set the stage for new collaborations in a friendly atmosphere. Importantly, we will identify paths forward to maximize the use of ALMA and other synergistic observing facilities to study lensed galaxies at the peak of star formation.

Workshop Program (TBD)

9:30am-12:30pm (talks) + afternoon discussions

Wednesday May 7, 2024: 

Overview of PASSAGES science / data highlights and lensed ALMA sources

Thursday May 8, 2024: 

Key Tools: strong lensing, kinematics, turbulent radiative transfer, multi-wavelength analyses

Friday May 9, 2024: 

Science planning and development around ALMA WSU and next generation facilities

Scientific Organizing Committee

• Min Yun (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

• Kevin Harrington (ALMA Observatory / National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)

• Brenda Frye (University of Arizona)

• Melanie Kaasinen (Australian National University)

• Patrick Kamieneski (Arizona State University)

• Ilsang Yoon (National Radio Astronomy Observatory)

• Allison Man (University of British Columbia)