The Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy hosted the 16th European VLBI Network Symposium and Users Meeting in Bonn, Germany, from 2 to 6 September. More than 160 participants from 22 countries on five continents attended the meeting.
Due to a significant mismatch between the number of participants expressing interest in oral presentations and the number of slots available, the number of posters was increased to 50. This resulted in a total of approximately 120 contributions, including invited, contributed and poster presentations.
The invited talks were designed to introduce a variety of topics within larger sessions, with the objective of providing an overview of the subject matter. The introductory presentations were well-received, with particular interest shown in those on dark matter and gravitational lensing, galaxy evolution, gamma-ray bursts, binary black holes across cosmic time, jets in radio-quiet active galactic nuclei, accretion and the jet base in active galactic nuclei, neutrino astrophysics, X-ray binaries and stellar-mass black holes, spectrum management, stellar formation, fast radio bursts, and astrometry with VLBI and Gaia. Additionally, invited presentations on technical matters were delivered, including discussions on radio spectrum management, current and future developments for the European VLBI Network, the Global mm-VLBI Array, and the East Asian VLBI Network.
Among the most noteworthy contributions to the symposium was the LEVERAGE project, which aims to integrate antennas into the German and European astronomical infrastructure to complement the ngVLA, the EVN, and the SKA-MID observatories. The object Messier 87 was examined at very different scales in the radio from the innermost regions, which encompass the black hole shadow and jet, to the outer jet (HST-1 component). New observational techniques, including a comprehensive polarisation study across multiple bands to ascertain the Faraday rotation measure or frequency-phase transfer analysis, were presented. The potential for synergy between geodesy and astrophysics in the context of VLBI was discussed, as was the removal of source structure in the geodetic VLBI Global Observing System telescope data to facilitate enhanced analysis. Applications of VLBI at the lowest frequencies utilising the LOFAR international network were also highlighted. Finally, the highest resolutions achievable with space VLBI or the Event Horizon Telescope in cases such as as 3C 279 or 3C 84 were presented.
The users of the European VLBI Network met for a dedicated meeting to discuss a range of topics with the array officers. These discussions included observations, best practices, proposal preparation and other relevant issues.
During the conference the history and success of JIVE were elucidated in several presentations, including remote and in-person participation of the present and former directors. The conference was enhanced with a visit to the 100-metre radio telescope at Effelsberg.
Conference proceedings will be published over the next months.
Image: © Aleksei Nikonov