Khagol- 134 (Oct 2024) - ENG

| 05 | KHAG L | No. 134 - OCTOBER 2024 Conference on Blazars and Restless Active Galactic Nuclei (COBRA): A High Energy View The "Conference on Blazars and Restless AGN (COBRA): A High Energy View" was held at Presidency University (PU) Kolkata from Ju l y 24-26 , 2024 . The Schoo l o f Astrophysics at the Presidency University, Kolkata and IUCAA, Pune, organised the conference. IUCAA provided financial support along with the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS). Approximately eighty-five participants from various institutions nationwide took part in the conference. It was a continuation of a national-level biannual conference series organised since 2014 on high energy emissions from AGN. The PhD scholars and post-doctoral fellows were encouraged to contribute presentations and engage in the discussion of the results of their research with fellow participants. Sankar Bose, former Dean of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Presidency University and Ranjeev Misra, Dean Visitor Academic Programmes, IUCAA, inaugurated the conference. In the inaugural session, the speakers highlighted the glorious tradition of two centuries-old Presidency University (formerly Presidency College and Hindu College), from where generations of Indian scholars and scientists graduated. Referring to the School of Astrophysics established in 2022, which runs the M.Sc in Astrophysics programme, the speakers emphasised that this was the only centre in Eastern India carrying out research in astrophysics and cosmology. In this context, the speakers discussed IUCAA's mission to support teaching and research in astronomy and astrophysics at Indian universities. The three-day conference comprised five invited talks, twenty-six contributed talks and seven posters - with three-minute flash talks on each poster. The presenters included seven MSc students, twenty PhD scholars, three post-doctoral fellows and eight faculty members. The twelve sessions over three days were chaired by Saumyadip Samui (Presidency University, Kolkata), Vaidehi Paliya (IUCAA), Samir Mandal (IIST, Thiruvananthapuram), Debanjan Bose (Central University of Kashmir), Savithri H. Ezhikode (CHRIST U n i v e r s i t y , B a n g a l o r e ) , S u n d e r Sahayanathan (BARC, Mumbai), Soma Mandal (Government Girls' General Degree College, Kolkata), Zahir Ahmad Shah (Central University of Kashmir, Kashmir), Suchetana Chatterjee (Presidency University) and Ranjeev Misra (IUCAA). The p r e s e n t a t i o n s w e r e f o c u s e d o n observations of blazars across the electromagnetic spectrum, including TeV and GeV gamma-rays, X-rays, optical and radio emission and related theoretical modeling of variability and spectral energy d i s t r i b u t i o n , m u l t i - w a v e l e n g t h observations of non-blazar AGN as well as ongoing and future instrumentation efforts for observations of high energy emission fromAGN. Among the invited talks, Sagar Godambe (BARC, Mumbai) described the current status and prospects of very high energy gamma-ray observations of AGN with MACE, Bhargav Vaidya (IIT Indore) discussed numerical simulations of AGN jets, Pankaj Kushwaha (IISER, Mohali) talked about the current status and challenges of multi-wavelength, multi- approach view of blazars, Debbijoy Bhattacharya (MCNS, Manipal) talked about observations of AGN beyond AstroSat, mainly, X-ray polarisation study and design requirements for future wide- field X-ray spectroscopic missions, and Savithri H. Ezhikode (CHlRST, Bangalore) gave an overview of X-ray observations of non-blazar AGN. In the concluding session, Ranjeev Misra discussed the summary of the new results and gave an overview of the presentations. He provided general advice abou t resea rch i n as t ronomy and astrophysics to MSc students, research scholars, and early-career scientists. Emphasising the importance of probing the underlying physics implied by the observed data and its rudimentary description and analyses he added that it was essential to develop a culture of regularly writing observing proposals to national and international facilities and setting up groups on social media platforms to interact with other Indian AGN scientists to discuss minor technical problems, e.g., troubleshooting data analysis software issues. The organisers requested the participants to provide their anonymous feedback online. The Scientific Organizing Committee comprised Pratik Majumdar (SINP, Kolkata), Varsha Chitnis (TIFR, Mumbai), Gulab Dewangan (IUCAA), Ranjeev Misra (IUCAA), Soumen Mondal (Jadavpur University, Kolkata), Vaidehi Paliya (IUCAA), Sunder Sahayanathan (BARC, Mumbai), Amit Shukla (IIT Indore), C. S. Stalin (IIA, Bangalore) and Ritaban Chatterjee (Presidency University, Kolkata). Pratik Majumdar (SINP, Kolkata) was the co- conveno r, and R i t aban Cha t t e r j ee (Presidency University, Kolkata) was the c onv eno r o f t he c on f e r enc e . The conference was coordinated by Vaidehi Paliya (IUCAA) and Ritaban Chatterjee (Presidency University).