Traditional conferences "Magnetic Stars"

at the Special Astrophysical Observatory, Nizhnii Arkhyz

Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences is one of the leading research centers in the field of stellar magnetism. For more than 30 years we have been observing the magnetic fields of different objects with the use of 6-m BTA. For the past three decades, our observatory on a regular basis holds the international conferences "The Magnetic Stars." Every conference usually gathers a limited number of participants, but each and every one of them is truly our friend. We especially appreciate that our friends supported us in the hard times when Russia was in the period of a political transformation. Those troubles were crucial in the North Caucasian region where the observatory is located. Talks of all, but the first, conferences were published as separate Proceedings books. All of them are indexed in various databases, in SAO/NASA ADS, in particular. For the list of proceedings go to the bottom of this page. Below we present an extensive history of our traditional conferences.

The very first conference was held in October 1980. It brought together scientists from the Soviet Union and several astronomers from socialistic at the time East-European countries.

The second conference was held on October 12-17, 1987. Werner Schöneich headed the Scientific Organizing Committee and Yurij V. Glagolevskij was the head of the Local Organizing Committee. That meeting gathered about 40 astronomers from Bulgaria, GDR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and USSR.

The third conference took place on 30 September - 5 October 1991. That was the time of violent political changes in Eastern Europe. At the end of August 1991, there was an attempt of a military takeover in Moscow. Nevertheless, more than 40 astronomers from USSR, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Finland, and USA participated in the conference. A. A. Boyarchuk chaired the SOC and Yu. V. Glagolevskij headed the LOC.

The next, the 4th conference was held from May 13 to May 18, 1996. The meeting was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Zeeman effect discovery, to the 50th anniversary of the first measurements of stellar magnetic fields and to the 20th anniversary of the magnetic observations with the 6-m telescope. Again, the political situation in the North Caucasus at that time was unstable, military engagements were happening in Chechnya. Because of that, not all of the invited speakers had the courage to come here. Nevertheless, astronomers from former USSR as well as John Landstreet and Gregg Wade from Canada, Jean-Louis Leroy from France, Kazimierz Stępień from Poland and Jan Budaj from Slovakia came to take the part in this conference. The Organizing Committee was headed by Yu. V. Glagolevskij.

The 5th conference was held on 24-27 September 1999. Yu. V. Glagolevskij headed the Organizing Committee yet again. At that time, the political situation in the North Caucasus region was still very unstable, that was the period of second Chechen War. In Moscow terrorists blew up a few buildings and even the plans to organize the conference were open to question. But in spite of everything, the conference was carried out successfully and brought together about 30 participants. More than 50 talks and posters were presented. That conference was the last magnetic meeting at SAO at which Vera Khokhlova — the founder of research on mCP-stars in the former USSR — took the part.

The 6th conference was held from August 27 to 31, 2003, in the observatory in Nizhnii Arkhyz, as usual. That year we celebrated Ivan Kopylov's (the first SAO head) 75th anniversary. The leading experts in the field of stellar magnetism were invited to give their reviews. The most interesting talks touched on the new observational data and the results of its reduction. In a memory of Vera Khokhlova there are the recollections from our permanent participants in the Proceedings book.

The 7th conference was held from August 28 to 31, 2006 and was dedicated to the 40th anniversary of SAO. I. Romanyuk headed the organizing committee this time. About 50 scientists from Russia, Ukraine, Canada, Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, Austria, and South Korea arrived to take the part in the meeting and presented more than 60 talks and posters. The size of Proceedings has been growing ever since the start of the conferences.

For the 8th time the Special Astrophysical Observatory brought together scientists working in the field of stellar magnetism in 2010. Yu. Balega and I. Romanyuk headed the organizing committee and the conference took place from August 27 to September 1. Overall, 51 astronomers registered to take the part in the conference and presented 30 talks — 9 of them were invited talks — and more then 20 poster presentations. This time, apart from our permanent guests from Canada, Poland, Czech, Slovakia, and Ukraine, scientists from Mexico and India participated in the meeting.

The last so far, the 9th, conference organized by the stellar magnetism laboratory of SAO was held in 2014. The conference title "Physics and Evolution of Magnetic and Related Stars" emphasizes the variety of topics discussed throughout the meeting. The conference took place at the traditional time, at the end of summer, from August 25 to 31 and gathered more than 60 astronomers from 9 countries who presented more than 40 talks.

During all the time our conferences were held, the staff of SAO actively participated in the organization and, apart from them, Tatiana Ryabchikova always gave us a helping hand. Without her assistance, our conferences wouldn't have been happening.

The organizing committee also acknowledges the administration of SAO and personally its present scientific chief Yu. Balega for permanent support in execution of our conferences.

List of proceedings

  1. "Communications of SAO," volume 32, in 1981.
  2. "Magnetic Stars", editors-in-chief: Yu. V. Glagolevskij and I. M. Kopylov (Leningrad, Nauka Publishing House, 1988), 328 pages.
  3. "Stellar Magnetism" edited by Yu. V. Glagolevskij and I. I. Romanyuk (Saint Petersburg, Nauka, 1992), 270 pages.
  4. "Stellar Magnetic Fields", editors-in-chief: Yu. V. Glagolevskij and I. I. Romanyuk (Moscow, 1997), 236 pages.
  5. "Magnetic Fields of Chemically Peculiar and Related Stars", Editors-in-chief Yu. V. Glagolevskij and I. I. Romanyuk (Moscow, 2000), 274 pages.
  6. "Magnetic Stars", Editors-in-chief Yu. V. Glagolevskij, D. O. Kudryavtsev and I. I. Romanyuk (Nizhnii Arkhyz, 2003; ISBN:981-256-049-1), 294 pages.
  7. "Physics of Magnetic Stars", Editors-in-chief: D. O. Kudryavtsev and I. I. Romanyuk, (Nizhnii Arkhyz, ISBN:5-91155-009-1), 368 pages.
  8. "Magnetic Stars", D. O. Kudryavtsev and I. I. Romanyuk, 486 pages.
  9. "Physics and Evolution of Magnetic and Related Stars", ISBN 978-1-58381-872-5, Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series (vol. 494, 2015), Yu. Yu. Balega, I. I. Romanyuk, D.O. Kudryavtsev, 359 pages.
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