"Les Rencontres de l'Observatoire" ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI: FROM CENTRAL ENGINE TO HOST GALAXY Meudon, France, 23-27 July 2002

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First, impressive progress have been made during the last years and is expected in the near future, concerning the physics of the central engine in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), as a consequence of data flows from space missions, such as ASCA, Chandra, FUSE, HST, HUT, ISO, XMM, and from high-resolution ground-based observations. Presently, there is almost no doubt that an accretion flow is located very close to the supermassive black hole (SBH), and that general relativistic effects shape the observed spectrum. Mapping of the Broad Line Region, variability and spectral studies in the X-rays allow to constrain the mass of the SBH, and the structure and physical properties of the hot and cold flows in its neighborhood. New evidence exists for winds on various spatial scales, and multiwavelength monitoring from radio to very high energy allows to understand the relation between the disk and the jet in radio loud objects. These new results require one to understand the physics of the central engine and the interplay between the different components of its immediate environment: accretion disk, Warm Absorber, Broad Emission, Absorption and Narrow Line Regions, jet and radio core.

Second, it became evident recently that nuclear starbursts and AGNs are not isolated in their evolution but are closely related to each other and possibly to their host galaxies. Understanding the intricacies of this symbiosis, which include different aspects of fueling of central engines in AGNs, physics of accretion flows, central star formation in the presence of radiative and mechanical energy deposition, evolution of supernovae remnants in a dense environment, dynamics of the central kiloparsec in host galaxies, and the role of magnetic fields, is paramount to understanding the nature of AGNs. A number of observational and theoretical breakthroughs, such as apparent ubiquity of SBHs in galactic centers, correlation between properties of the SBHs and bulges of host galaxies, footprints of ongoing star formation in Seyfert 2 galaxies, clear signs of gas inflows in disk galaxies towards their centers, and collimated and uncollimated outflows in Seyferts and quasars --- all this sheds new light both on the nature of AGNs and on galaxy evolution.

The increased effort to address symbiotic relationship between the central engines in AGNs, surrounding accretion disks and their nearby and distant environments, coincides with the breakthrough in our computational capabilities to study more realistic theoretical models (GRAPE-6 computer will become available around the time of this Symposium). Our understanding of the nature of AGNs is rapidly changing and causal relationships in the evolution become more visible. The historical division between the AGN experts and galactic dynamists rapidly becomes obsolete. We see our goal, therefore, in bringing together observers, theorists and computational scientists from both sides of the divide in order to summarize the achievements and decide on the best strategy in addressing the overall problem.

Although the subject of the proposed conference has been discussed as an important issue in the past, it was typically divided into subtopics, each dealt with separately. For this Symposium to be held in July 2002, we intend to bring together the `mainstream' AGNs researchers working on the accretion flows around supermassive black holes and galactic dynamicists and experts on star formation and supernovae remnants. We shall focus principally on the observational and theoretical evidence for the relationship between the central engines in AGNs, nuclear star formation and evolution of central kiloparsec in disk galaxies.

Questions to: meeting.agn02@obspm.fr