Program and Agenda
The 27th Texas Symposium will feature a variety of plenary talks covering the topics listed below, hundreds of contributed talks in parallel sessions, as well as a poster session.
A banquet is planned for the middle of the Symposium, with tickets available for purchase through the registration page. You can purchase banquet tickets during or after your registration. We will also host an opening reception on the evening of Sunday, December 8th.
Detailed Program
A complete list of available abstracts for plenary and contributed talks and posters can also be downloaded here.
Check back frequently as minor changes and updates continue to be applied to the program.
Outline of Program
Sunday, December 8th
All day | Arrivals |
3:00pm-8:00pm | Registration |
6:00pm-8:00pm | Welcome Reception |
Monday, December 9th
7:00am-5:00pm | Registration | ||
8:30am-9:00am | Welcome Remarks | ||
9:00am-9:45am | Plenary Session 1: Chair: R. Penrose | Gravitational Waves, Neutron Stars, and Binary Pulsars Joseph Taylor Princeton University | |
9:45am-10:30am | Plenary Session 2: Chair: R. Penrose | The Very Early Universe Paul Steinhardt Princeton University | |
10:30am-11:00am | Coffee break | ||
11:00am-12:30pm | Parallel Session 1: | Early Universe I Chair: A. Ashtekar | Testing Gravity I Chair: J. Dossett |
High Energy Astrophysics - Galactic Chair: L. Macri | Supermassive Black Holes Chair: A. Wang |
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Nuclear EOS for Compact Objects I Chair: G. Verde | Pulsars Chair: A. McIntosh |
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Submillimeter Cosmology Chair: D. Clements | |||
12:30pm-2:00pm | Lunch break | ||
2:00pm-2:40pm | Plenary Session 3: Chair: R. Wagoner | The Higgs Boson and Cosmology Steven Weinberg University of Texas at Austin | |
2:40pm-3:20pm | Plenary Session 4: Chair: R. Wagoner | Looking Backward, Forward, And Sideways From Dallas, 1963 Virginia Trimble University of California - Irvine and LCOGT | |
3:20pm-4:00pm | Plenary Session 5: Chair: R. Wagoner | Review on Nuclear Equation of State for Compact Objects Charles J. Horowitz Indiana University | |
4:00pm-4:30pm | Coffee break | ||
4:30pm-6:00pm | Parallel Session 2: | Higgs Boson: A Roadmap for Astrophysicists Chair: F. Olness | Magnetars Chair: M. Baring |
Gravitational Waves Chair: N. Cornish | Galaxies & Clusters Chair: L. King |
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Shock Acceleration Chair: D. Ellison | Modified Gravity I Chair: M. Ishak |
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Dark Matter I Chair: S. Majumdar |
Tuesday, December 10th
8:00am-5:00pm | Registration | ||
9:00am-9:45am | Plenary Session 6: Chair: C. Hogan | Cosmology After Planck David Spergel Princeton University | |
9:45am-10:30am | Plenary Session 7: Chair: C. Hogan | Loop Quantum Gravity and the Very Early Universe Abhay Ashtekar Pennsylvania State University | |
10:30am-11:00am | Coffee break | ||
11:00am-12:30pm | Parallel Session 4: | Early Universe II Chair: X. Chen | Modified Gravity II Chair: L. Pogosian |
Pulsar Timing Arrays Chair: X. Siemens | Magnetohydrodynamics Chair: E. Baron |
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Nuclear EOS for Compact Objects II Chair: B. Li | Relativity I Chair: R. Kantowski |
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History of Relativity I Chair: J. Renn | |||
12:30pm-2:00pm | Lunch break | ||
2:00pm-2:45pm | Plenary Session 8: Chair: V. Kaspi | Cosmological Tests of General Relativity Edmund Bertschinger Massachusetts Institute of Technology | |
2:45pm-3:30pm | Plenary Session 9: Chair: V. Kaspi | Active Galactic Nuclei Roger Blandford Stanford University | |
3:30pm-4:00pm | Coffee break | ||
4:00pm-5:30pm | Parallel Session 4: | Inhomogeneous Cosmologies, Backreaction, & Averaging Chair: C. Hellaby | Tidal Disruption Events Chair: M. Kesden |
High Energy Astrophysics - Extragalactic Chair: B. Dingus | Large-Scale Structure Chair: P. Shapiro |
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Nuclear Astrophysics I Chair: T. Aumann | Gamma Ray Bursts I Chair: W. Burgett |
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Cosmology I Chair: L. Boyle | |||
7:00pm-9:00pm | Banquet | After-Dinner Speaker: M. Turner |
Wednesday, December 11th
8:00am-1:30pm | Registration | ||
9:00am-9:45am | Plenary Session 10: Chair: W. Freedman | Supernovae, Neutron Stars and Black Holes in the GRBs Era Remo Ruffini International Centre for Relativistic Astrophysics | |
9:45am-10:30am | Plenary Session 11: Chair: W. Freedman | Recent Results From Planck Krzysztof Gorski JPL, California Institute of Technology | |
10:30am-11:00am | Coffee break | ||
11:00am-12:30pm | Parallel Session 5: | Cosmic Microwave Background Chair: D. Scott | Nuclear EOS for Compact Objects III Chair: C. Horowitz |
Dark Matter II Chair: K. Freese | Binary Black Holes Chair: Z. Haiman |
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X-Ray I Chair: H. Marshall | Relativity II Chair: V. Trimble |
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History of Relativistic Astrophysics II Chair: C. Misner | |||
12:30pm-2:00pm | Lunch break | ||
1:45pm | Buses depart to The University of Texas at Dallas | ||
3:15pm-5:00am | Plenary Session 12: Moderator: Jurgen Renn | Roundtable Discussion: Recollections of the Relativistic Astrophysics Revolution | |
5:30pm-7:00pm | Dinner | ||
7:30pm-9:00am | Public Talk: | Mysteries of the Dark Universe Edward 'Rocky' Kolb University of Chicago | |
9:00pm-9:30pm | Public Outreach Event | ||
9:30pm | Buses return to the Fairmont Dallas Hotel |
Thursday, December 12th
8:00am-5:00pm | Registration | ||
9:00am-9:45am | Plenary Session 13: Chair: K. Lake | Inhomogeneous Cosmologies George Ellis University of Cape Town | |
9:45am-10:30am | Plenary Session 14: Chair: K. Lake | The Accelerating Universe Robert Kirshner Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics | |
10:30am-11:00am | Coffee break | ||
11:00am-12:30pm | Parallel Session 6: | Dark Matter III Chair: J. Cooley | Nuclear EOS for Compact Objects IV & Nuclear Astrophysics Chair: S. Reddy |
Testing Gravity II Chair: P. Zhang | Compact Objects Chair: A. Upadhye |
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Electromagnetic Signatures of Binary Mergers Chair: Z. Musielak | X-Rays II Chair: X. Dai |
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Cosmic Microwave Background Chair: A. Hajian | |||
12:30pm-2:00pm | Lunch break | ||
2:00pm-2:45pm | Plenary Session 15: Chair: TBC | Gravitational lensing and Applications to Cosmology Nick Kaiser IFA, University of Hawaii | |
2:45pm-3:30pm | Plenary Session 16: Chair: TBC | First Results From The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) High-Energy X-ray Mission Fiona Harrison California Institute of Technology | |
3:30pm-4:00pm | Coffee break | ||
4:00pm-5:30pm | Parallel Session 7: | Cosmic Acceleration / Dark Energy Chair: D. Huterer | Lensing Chair: T. Brainerd |
Active Galactic Nuclei Chair: R. Walter | Gamma Ray Bursts II Chair: M. Lyutikov |
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Relativity III Chair: L. Ammann | High Energy Astrophysics-Exp. Chair: F. Rieger |
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Nuclear Astrophysics II Chair: C. Bertulani | |||
7:00pm-8:00pm | Poster Session |
Friday, December 13th
8:00am-1:30pm | Registration | ||
9:00am-9:45am | Plenary Session 17: Chair: M. Diaz | Numerical Relativity Manuella Campanelli Rochester Institute of Technology | |
9:45am-10:30am | Plenary Session 18: Chair: M. Diaz | Gravitational Wave Astronomy in the Next Decade Bernard Schutz Max Planck Institute Potsdam-Golm | |
10:30am-11:00am | Coffee break | ||
11:00am-11:45am | Plenary Session 18: Chair: Cecile DeWitt | Nuclear Astrophysics Sanjay Reddy University of Washington | |
11:45am-12:30pm | Closing Remarks: Chair: Cecile DeWitt | Cosmology After Fifty Years of Texas Meetings Katherine Freese University of Michigan | |
12:30pm | Symposium Closes |