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Meeting Philosophy:
In order to encourage ALMA focused presentations and set the stage for
a well balanced program, the SOC has developed a "wish list" of talk
topics that we would like to see given at the meeting. This list is
appended below. You are free to propose to give a talk topic from this
list or give a contributed talk or poster on a topic of your choice
(as space permits). This format is loosely modeled after the
successful "Protostars and Protoplanets" meeting format -- the SOC
will invite a small number of speakers, and then select from those who
volunteer to give a wish list talk or propose their own topic. "Wish
list" talks will be longer than contributed talks, schedule permitting.
Wish List Topics:
- What are the best (molecular) tracers of physical conditions in
regions of massive star formation?
- What physical conditions in molecular clouds are required for the
formation of massive stars?
- What is the theoretical view of the formation of high-mass stars
competitively accreting in clusters?
- What are the expected effects of feedback due to a stellar cluster
on a molecular cloud?
- What evidence exists for feedback on small scales (e.g., from
individual protostellar outflows and massive stars)?
- Do massive (proto) stars drive turbulence in their parent
molecular clouds, and if so, how?
- What fundamental physics drives the key scaling relations that
describe star formation and feedback on galaxy scales?
- What evidence do we have for "triggered" or "self-propagating"
star formation, on small and large scales?
- How does star formation differ in the extreme environment of the
Galactic Center from the process we observe locally?
- How does cluster formation differ in the extreme environments
of starburst galaxies, and are unique/extreme conditions required
for the formation of super-star clusters?
- What can we learn about the relationship(s) between molecular
clouds, feedback, and massive star formation from recent
observations of the Magellanic Clouds?
- How are massive star formation and feedback different at very low
metallicity?
- How do observations constrain the nature of massive cores and how
cores form in molecular clouds?
- What have we learned from turbulent simulations about the
formation of molecular cores?
- What are the best high-resolution observational constraints on the
formation of massive stars and the disks from which they (may) accrete?
- What is the theoretical view of the formation of high-mass stars
from individual cores?
- How does feedback on GMC scales ultimately drive galactic winds?
- What key scaling relations are observed to describe star formation and feedback on galaxy scales?
NOTE:
Green italicized topics correspond approximately
to talks being given by confirmed speakers.