THESEUS CONFERENCE 2021, VIRTUAL - 23-26 March 2021


The Transient High-Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor (THESEUS) is a space mission concept currently under Phase A study by the European Space Agency (ESA) as candidate M5 mission, in view of a launch opportunity in 2032. The current assessment phase will be concluded in mid-2021. Proposed and developed by a large international collaboration, the THESEUS project aims at fully exploiting Gamma-Ray Bursts for investigating the early Universe and at providing a substantial advancement of multi-messenger and time-domain astrophysics. Through an unprecedented combination of X-/gamma-rays monitors, an on-board NIR telescope and automated fast slewing capabilities, THESEUS will be a powerful machine for the detection, characterization and redshift measurement of any kind of GRBs and many classes of X-ray transients. In addition to the full exploitaiton of high-redshift GRBs for cosmology (pop-III stars, cosmic re-ionization, SFR and metallicity evolution up to the "cosmic dawn"), THESEUS will allow the identification and study of the electromagnetic counterparts to sources of gravitational waves which will be routinely detected in the early '30s by next generation facilities like aLIGO/aVirgo, KAGRA, LISA, Einstein Telescope (ET), and Cosmic Explorer, as well as to neutrino sources, detected, e.g., by KM3NeT. THESEUS will also be able to characterize in X/gamma-rays and in the NIR band most classes of transient sources, thus providing an ideal synergy with the large e.m. facilities of the near future like LSST, ELT, TMT, SKA, CTA, ATHENA.

Within this dedicated scientific conference, the THESEUS science case will be presented through dedicated review talks, discussing the status-of-the-art knowledge on GRB science, early Universe studies, gravitation wave physics, and transient Universe phenomena in general. The development status of the instruments on-board THESEUS will be reported and discussed, together with the current assumptions for the mission profile. Contributed talks are expected to enrich the program and suggest further exploitations of the THESEUS instrumentation in many other fields of the modern Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology, and fundamental physics. Through this conference, we aim at strengthening the involvement of the community in the project and boost even more the synergies being developed between THESEUS and all other facilities operational in the 2030s in the multi-wavelength domains.

The event is promoted by the THESEUS consortium and the Science Study Team, appointed by ESA in 2018, plus the leading scientific Spanish representatives of the THESEUS collaboration.


Invited Speakers: L. Amati (INAF-OAS Bologna, IT), S. Basa (LAM, FR), A. Blain (Leicester University, UK), M. Branchesi (GSSI, IT), E. Bozzo (University of Geneva, CH), L. Burderi (University of Cagliary, IT), M. D. Caballero-Garcia (IAA-CSIC, Spain), A. Castro-Tirado (IAA-CSIC, ES), L. Christensen (University of Copenhagen, DK), R. Ciolfi (INAF - Padova Observatory, IT), B. Cordier (CEA, FR), M. Della Valle (INAF-OA Capodimonte, IT), V. Doroshenko (IAAT, DE), M. Feroci (INAF-IAPS, IT), A. Ferrara (SNS, IT), F. Fiore (INAF-OAR, IT), F. Frontera (University of Ferrara, IT), G. Ghirlanda (INAF-OA Brera, IT), D. Gotz (CEA, FR), M. Guainazzi (ESA/ESTEC, NL), D. Guetta (Braude College, IL), C. Labanti (INAF-OAS Bologna, IT), J. Larranaga (ESA/ESTEC, NL), E. Le Floch (CEA, FR), F. Longo (University of Trieste, IT), P. McNamara (ESA/ESTEC, NL), S. Mereghetti (INAF-IASF Milano, IT), M. Fraser (UCD, IE), P. O'Brien (University of Leicester, UK), T. Oosterbroek (ESA/ESTEC, NL), J. Osborne (University of Leicester, UK), S. Paltani (University of Geneva, CH), E. Piedipalumbo (University of Naples, IT), T. Piran (Racah Institute of Physics, IL), L. Piro (INAF-IASF, IT), P. Predehl (MPE, DE), T. Prod'homme (ESA/ESTEC, NL), L. Rezzolla (ITP, DE), A. Rocchi (ESA/ESAC, ES), P. Rosati (University of Ferrara, IT), R. Salvaterra (INAF-IASF Milano, IT), A. Santangelo (IAAT, DE), F. Schussler (CEA, FR), M. Spurio (University of Bologna, IT), G. Stratta (INAF-OAS Bologna, IT), N. Tanvir (University of Leicester, UK), S. Vergani (Observatorie de Paris, FR), D. Yonetoku (Kanazawa University, JP), W. Yuan (NAOC, CN), N. White (George Washington University, USA). 

Science Organizing Committee: L. Amati (INAF-OAS Bologna, IT; CHAIR); D. Gotz (CEA Saclay, FR; co-chair); P. O'Brien (Univ. Leicester, UK; co-chair); S. Basa (LAM Marseille, FR); M. D. Caballero-Garcia (IAA-CSIC, Spain); A. J. Castro-Tirado (IAA Granada, ES); L. Christensen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark); M. Guainazzi (ESA/ESTEC); L. Hanlon (UCD, IE); S. Paltani (Univ. Geneva, CH); V. Reglero (Univ. Valencia, ES); A. Santangelo (Univ. Tubingen, DE); G. Stratta (INAF-OAS Bologna, IT); N. Tanvir (Univ. Leicester, UK).

Virtual event handlers: E. Bozzo, C. Ferrigno (University of Geneva, Switzerland)