The Centre for the Universe and the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics are exciting new centres for cosmology, with excellent complementarity. CFU focuses mainly on theory, WCA mainly on observation but we both recognise that the most important advances happen when observation and theory successfully connect. In order to promote this connection, CFU and WCA are collaborating on a number of initiatives including regular CFU-WCA days.
With the era of gravitational wave astronomy started and a rapid increase in sensitivity and frequency bands, unprecedented opportunities to unravel long-standing questions as well as new opportunities open up. This workshop will focus on discussing out-of-the-box ideas for this exciting field.
Canada has great ambitions in the area of wide-field astronomical surveys and a strong heritage. On the eve of the Canadian Long Range Plan 2020 this workshop brings together the Canadian wide field astronomy community to discuss our strategy including possible areas of scientific and technical coordination. We will review existing and near-term surveys on facilities including CFHT MWA CHIME Dragonfly Gaia SDSS-V DESI Euclid and LSST as well as future projects like MSE and SKA1 on the ground and WFIRST and CASTOR in space. Invited talks will highlight areas of rapid expansion including time domain astrophysics and radio surveys as well as data archives and computing platforms like CADC Canfar and CIRADA that enable the exploitation of wide field and time-domain data by the community. Our activities aim to ensure that wide field and time-domain science emerge with strong support in LRP2020 and are able to attract significant funding.
