How does the Galaxy work?

TheinternationalconferenceHowdoestheGalaxywork? Agalactictertulia rd th with Don Cox and Ron Reynolds, was held during the week of 23 to 27 of June 2003 in the marvelous city of Granada, Spain. This week marked the beginningofoneofthehottestsummersthatwehaveeverlived, butincontrast, the meeting was one of the coolest events that we can remember! First, it certainly wasa?rstclassscienti?creunion, withanexcellent program, talented speakers, and alive discussions in a friendly atmosphere. Second, the whole event was embedded in the passionate Andalucian way of life, a true tertulia, well seasoned with tasty tapas and perfectly marinated in cool and dry sherry wine. Third, the celebration was framed by some of the most beautiful settings thatonecanimagine; weenjoyedthemagni?centsplendoroftheAlhambra,the unique Muslim-Jewish-Christian ?avor of the Albaicin, and the magical gipsy heartbeat of Sacromonte. Last but not least, all discussions, whether they were duringthesessionsoratabartable,weresprinkledwiththecharmandwitofthe twoguestsofhonor: DonCoxandRonReynolds. Theideaofhavingascienti?c feast to celebrate their 60th birthday in Granada was actually conceived at a bar table in Seville, with plenty of manzanilla at hand, a couple of summers ago. That, perhaps, was the dif?cult part of the project. The rest was relatively easy to achieve because Don and Ron are not only remarkable astronomers but they are also great human beings. Indeed, we had a very positive response from all parties involved: every person we talked to was enthusiastic about the celebration, and wanted to give their own point of view in this tertulia.

Inhalt
The Milky Way: Four Centuries of Discovery of the Galaxy.- Hi Clouds Beyond the Galactic Disk.- The Wham Northern Sky Survey and the Nature of the Warm Ionized Medium in the Galaxy.- The Structure of Galactic Hydrogen on the Largest Scales.- The Bu-Fcrao Galactic Ring Survey.- The View of the Interstellar Medium with the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey.- Dark Hydrogen in the Galactic Plane.- Diffuse Infrared Excess Features in the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey.- The Oxygen Abundance in Our Galaxy.- Ionization of the Galactic Halo.- Diffuse Ionized Gas and the Disk-Halo Interaction in Spiral Galaxies.- Are All the DIGs the Same?.- Radio Halos in Star Forming Galaxies.- Brackett-? Line Survey of the Ionized Hydrogen in the Galactic Plane.- Leaky H II Regions and Heliumionization in the Reynolds Layer.- Reynolds Layers in Nearby Galaxies: The Face-On View.- Volume Filling Factors of the Dig.- Latest Results of the Sethi Survey at Arecibo.- Job Accomplished? The Escape of Ionizing Radiation from the Disks of Spiral Galaxies.- Modeling the Diffuse Ionized Gas with Cloudy.- Diffuse Ionized Medium Panel Discussion.- Absorption Line Studies in the Halo.- Dynamical Evolution of High Velocity Clouds in the Galactic Halo.- Pulsar Bow Shocks as Probes of Warm Neutral Gas.- Highly Ionized HVCs Towards Pks 2155304: Galactic or Extragalactic?.- Towards an Understanding of the Dynamics of the Milky Way.- Fuse Observations of Ovi Emission from the Galactic Fountain.- Pattern Speeds of Three Spirals Using Co and the Tremaine-Weinberg Method.- Gas Infall Onto the Superthin Ic 2233.- High-Velocity Gas Observed Towards the Shajn 147 Supernova Remnant.- Hot Gas in the Galaxy.- Bubbles and Superbubbles.- The Chandra View of M101: What Can We Learn About the Milky Way?.- Fuse Observationsof the Vela Supernova Remnant.- Circumstellar Interaction in Young Radio Supernovae.- Chandra Archive of Nearby Galaxies. I. Normal Galaxies.- Hi Shells in the 2nd Galactic Quadrant.- Key Science Programs for the Spear Mission.- Chandra Archive of Nearby Galaxies. II. Galaxies with Nuclear Activity.- Heating and Cooling in the ISM.- The Galactic Centre and Its Black Hole.- Stellar Metallicities and the Formation of the Galactic Bulge.- The Galactic Bar.- Stellar Distribution in the Galactic Disk from NIR Color-Magnitude Diagrams.- Stellar Clusters in the Nucleus of Galaxie.- Massive Young Clusters.- Deep Multicolor NIR Surver of the Galactic Plane.- Tracing the History of the Galaxy with Globular Clusters.- Tidal Debris in the Galactic Halo.- Star Formation in High-Redshift ISM.- Gas Inflow in Spiral Galaxies from Kiloparsec to Parsec Scale.- Open Clusters as Tracers of the Cygnus ARM.- Triaxial Bulge and In-Plane Bar of the Milky Way.- Tidal Shocks on Globular Clusters.- Evolution of Globular Cluster Populations in Compact Galaxy Groups.- Near IR Color-Magnitude Diagrams of Bulge Globular Clusters.- Magnetic Fields in the Milky Way and Other Spiral Galaxies.- The Origin of Galactic Magnetic Fields.- Magnetic Turbulence in the WIM.- Magnetic Fields and Spiral Structure.- Calculations of the Dynamo Coefficients in Galactic Magnetic Fields with Shear.- Galactic Magnetic Fields, from Radio Polarimetry of the WIM.- Radio Polarimetry in the Sothern Galactic Plane Survey.- The Truncation of the Stellar Disk of the Milky Way: A Magnetic Effect?.- The Parker Instability.- 3D MHD Modeling of the Galaxy.- The Frequency Evolution of Interstellar Pulse Broadening from Radio Pulsars.- 3D HD and MHD Adaptive Mesh Refinement Simulations of the Global and Local ISM.- The Turbulent Interstellar Medium: Insights and Questions from Numerical Models.- Hi: Temperatures, Magnetism, Turbulence, Morphology.- Cosmic Rays and ? Rays in the Galaxy.- Probing the Disk-Halo Connection Through the Local Interstellar Chimney.- The Spear (Spectroscopy of Emission from Astrophysical Radiation) Mission.- Dense Gas Contours Surrounding the Local Cavity: Comparison with the Soft X-Ray Background Emission Map.- Fuse Observations of the Hot Post-AGB Star ZNG 1 in the Globular Cluster M5.- 3D Simulations of the Local Bubble: How Much Ovi Can We Expect?.- XMM-Newton Observations of the Local Bubble and the Galactic Halo.- The Temperature of Massive Stars.- Fuse Survey Of The Local Interstellar Medium.- Diffuse Ovi Emission Towards the Loop I Superbubble.- The Local Bubble: Where is the ?300,000 K Gas?.- Is the Local Bubble Dead?.- Closing Remarks.