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SCIENTIFIC
RATIONALE
The physical properties of the hot
interstellar matter in elliptical galaxies are directly related with
the formation and evolution of elliptical galaxies via star formation
episodes, environmental effects such as stripping, infall, and mergers,
and growth of super-massiveblack holes. The recent successful Chandra
and XMM-Newton X-ray space missions have provided a large amount of
high spatial/spectral resolution observational data on the hot ISM in
elliptical galaxies. The most significant observational improvement
with the high quality X-ray data of the hot ISM is to accurately
measure the ISM metal abundances (after effectively removing LMXB
contribution) and to determine with high resolution the spatial
distribution of the hot gas including fine sub-structures. While the
spectral and spatial properties of the hot ISM indeed provide valuable
insight on the formation and evolution of elliptical galaxies, a number
of important issues are still poorly understood, including the metal
abundance discrepancy (extremely low Fe abundance) in some X-ray faint
galaxies, the deviation from the solar abundance ratio of alpha
elements (e.g.,low O abundance), the wide range of hot gas contents for
a given stellar mass (a factor of ~100 scatter in LX/LB), the effects
of AGN-feedback on the dynamics and energetics of the hot ISM. This
joint discussion between "Galaxies" and "ISM" divisions/commissions is
intended to review the observational constraints available on the
physical properties of the hot ISM, to confront the predictions of the
latest numerical simulations and analytical models of the
dynamical/chemical evolution with observations, and to explore the
evolution of the ISM and the elliptical galaxy.
The aim of the conference is to gather both observers and theorists
from around the world to critically review the recent results of the
hot ISM in elliptical galaxies. It will focus on the spectral and
spatial properties of the hot ISM and the comparison with the
state-of-art theoretical models. Understanding the contents and
structure of the hot ISM is critical to our understanding of the
formation and evolution of elliptical galaxies.
Main scientific
topics include:
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