Scientific rationale

The issue of dust synthesis and evolution in supernovae and their remnants is of great importance to understand the dust budget of galaxies and the origin of cosmic dust in the early universe. The first detection of dust and molecules in the hot ejecta of a core-collapse supernova occurred more than two decades ago. Since then, dust has been observed to form in many other core-collapse supernovae some hundred days after their explosion, often along with the detection of silicon monoxide, SiO, and carbon monoxide, CO. Despite the observational evidence of the synthesis of solids in these hot and harsh environments, there is no consensus on how and how much dust forms in Type II supernovae. Masses derived from infrared observations of hot dust synthesised a year after the explosion fall short of the dust masses derived in the later stage of supernova evolution, i.e., supernova remnants. The debate has recently been rekindled by the observation of large amounts of cold dust in a few supernova remnants by the Herschel telescope at sub-millimetre wavelengths. For more than two decades, pre-solar dust with an origin in supernovae has been found in meteorites and its supernova isotopic fingerprint studied in the laboratory. Such studies provide valuable information on the supernova nucleosynthesis, the ejecta chemical composition, and the locus of dust formation. Pre-solar supernova grains also bring evidence of the survival of ejecta material exposed to the harsh conditions encountered in the remnant, and of the chemical seeding of the solar nebula by supernova explosions, as illustrated by the finding of long-lived nuclides like ⁶⁰Fe on Earth. 

Because of the great efforts deployed by various communities studying supernovae and their remnants, we think it is very timely to organise an international workshop on the specific topic of dust synthesis and evolution in these environments to try and shed light on the following issues:

• Dust at high redshift - its sources and role in star formation in the early universe
• Nucleosynthesis of supernova explosion
• Explosion models and early mixing in supernova ejecta
• Dust formation - its chemistry and physics
• Pre-solar supernova dust in meteorites - clues on formation processes
• Multi-wavelength observations of dust in supernovae ejecta and their remnants
• Supernova remnants as dust sources or sinks – dust reprocessing
• Supernova seeding of the interstellar gas and the solar nebula
• Results on supernova dust from Herschel and the promise of ALMA

The workshop will be highly inter-disciplinary and will bring together experts in Astronomy, Astrophysics, Chemistry, Solid State, Nuclear and Meteorite Physics.

Invited speakers: Mike Barlow (UC London), John Black (Onsala Obs.) Volker Bromm (U. Austin), Stefan Bromley (U. Barcelona), Roger Chevalier (U. Virginia), Donald Clayton (Clemson U.), Eli Dwek (NASA GFSC), Claes Fransson (U. Stockholm), Peter Hoppe (MPI Mainz), Cornelia Jäger (U. Jena), Gunther Korschinek (TU Munich), Rubina Kotak (U. Belfast), Francesca Matteucci (U. Trieste), Mikako Matsuura (UC London), Ewald Müller (MPI Garching), Takaya Nozawa (U. Tokyo), Michael Paul (Hebrew U. Jerusalem), Jeonghee Rho (NASA Ames), Raffaella Schneider (Rome Obs.), Friedel Thielemann (U. Basel), Ernst Zinner (Washington U.)

This international workshop is part of the European Science Foundation EuroGENESIS CoDustMas network action, and will take place on 5-8 November 2012 at the Centro Stefano Franscini in Ascona, Switzerland.

We look forward to welcoming you in Ascona!

I. Cherchneff (U. Basel) and the SOC