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Meeting Philosophy:

In order to encourage ALMA focused presentations and set the stage for a well balanced program, the SOC has developed a "wish list" of talk topics that we would like to see given at the meeting. This list is appended below. You are free to propose to give a talk topic from this list or give a contributed talk or poster on a topic of your choice (as space permits). This format is loosely modeled after the successful "Protostars and Protoplanets" meeting format -- the SOC will invite a small number of speakers, and then select from those who volunteer to give a wish list talk or propose their own topic. "Wish list" talks will be longer than contributed talks, schedule permitting.

Wish List Topics:
  1. What are the best (molecular) tracers of physical conditions in regions of massive star formation?
  2. What physical conditions in molecular clouds are required for the formation of massive stars?
  3. What is the theoretical view of the formation of high-mass stars competitively accreting in clusters?
  4. What are the expected effects of feedback due to a stellar cluster on a molecular cloud?
  5. What evidence exists for feedback on small scales (e.g., from individual protostellar outflows and massive stars)?
  6. Do massive (proto) stars drive turbulence in their parent molecular clouds, and if so, how?
  7. What fundamental physics drives the key scaling relations that describe star formation and feedback on galaxy scales?
  8. What evidence do we have for "triggered" or "self-propagating" star formation, on small and large scales?
  9. How does star formation differ in the extreme environment of the Galactic Center from the process we observe locally?
  10. How does cluster formation differ in the extreme environments of starburst galaxies, and are unique/extreme conditions required for the formation of super-star clusters?
  11. What can we learn about the relationship(s) between molecular clouds, feedback, and massive star formation from recent observations of the Magellanic Clouds?
  12. How are massive star formation and feedback different at very low metallicity?
  13. How do observations constrain the nature of massive cores and how cores form in molecular clouds?
  14. What have we learned from turbulent simulations about the formation of molecular cores?
  15. What are the best high-resolution observational constraints on the formation of massive stars and the disks from which they (may) accrete?
  16. What is the theoretical view of the formation of high-mass stars from individual cores?
  17. How does feedback on GMC scales ultimately drive galactic winds?
  18. What key scaling relations are observed to describe star formation and feedback on galaxy scales?


  19. NOTE: Green italicized topics correspond approximately to talks being given by confirmed speakers.