Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the Special Session SS40 "Bar and spiral pattern speeds across galactic discs" that will take place during the European Astronomical Society (EAS) annual meeting in Padua (Italy) on 1-5 July 2024 (EAS2024).

Rationale:

For a wide range of non-axisymmetric phenomena in galaxies, like bars and spirals, the rate at which their pattern rotates regulates the morphology and dynamics of the galaxy and depends on its past evolutionary history. Measurements and modelling of pattern speeds can therefore put strong constraints on the mass distribution of galaxies as well as on their formation and evolution processes. In recent years, a growing body of theoretical studies and numerical simulations has been brought to bear on the implications of different pattern speeds in galaxies in general and in the Milky Way in particular. As far as measurements are concerned, considerable progress has been made in deriving bar pattern speeds via various methods for an increasing number of galaxies across different Hubble types, galaxy properties, and environments, whereas the pattern speeds of spirals have remained poorly constrained observationally. On the other hand, GAIA has made it possible to investigate in detail the bar and spiral pattern speeds of the Milky Way.

Programme:

SS40 is scheduled on 1 July 2024 and will cover the latest results in observations, modelling, and simulations of disc galaxies in a timely discussion about pattern speeds of bars and spirals.

SS40 will be divided into three blocks, each of them covering one of the main topics:

1) Bar pattern speeds across the Hubble sequence
2) Spiral pattern speeds across the Hubble sequence
3) Bar and spiral pattern speeds of the Milky Way

Invited speakers and more information are available at the SS40 website (https://eas.unige.ch/EAS_meeting/session.jsp?id=S40)

We kindly invite you to submit your oral or poter contribution to SS40. The abstract submission form is available at the EAS2024 website with deadline on 4 March 2024 (https://eas.unige.ch/EAS_meeting/abstract_submission.jsp).

The final program will be designed after receiving abstract submissions.

Scientific Organising Committee:

Chiara Buttitta (Italy), Enrico Maria Corsini (Italy, Co-chair), Virginia Cuomo (Chile), Victor P. Debattista (UK, Co-chair), Elena D'Onghia (USA), Soumavo Ghosh (Germany), M. Isabel Pérez (Spain), Juntai Shen (China)

Contact:

For any inquiry about SS40 please feel free to contact Enrico Maria Corsini (enricomaria.corsini@unipd.it)

We appreciate it if you could circulate this announcement to your colleagues and to those whom you believe would be interested in SS40.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Padua.

Best wishes,
The SOC of Special Session SS40