Summary of the Rubin-Athena Synergy Workshop
The Rubin-Athena Synergy Workshop was held online from 19th to 23rd of April with the participation of 77 scientists many of whom have strong links with these projects. The main aim of the workshop was to examine in some detail how the two projects can work together to enhance the scientific productivity of both.
The workshop was led by Mike Watson (Leicester University) with the support of the following scientific committee: Steve Allen, Antara Basu-Zych, Keith Bechtol, Niel Brandt, Sergio Campana, Nicolas Clerc, Ashish Mahabal and Mara Salvato.
Each day a single scientific topic was discussed: clusters, AGN surveys/evolution, galaxies, stellar systems and transients of all types from Monday to Friday, respectively. The first day included an overview presentation of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory project by Steven Kahn (Rubin director) and an overview presentation of Athena by Matteo Guainazzi (Athena Study Scientist). The Athena presentation is available for the community here.
The workshop was judged to be a success by the participants. The wide range of topics discussed probed many forefront astrophysical challenges in some detail and clearly identified the key areas of synergy between Rubin and Athena.
The scientific committee is now writing a synergy white paper for the benefit of the Rubin and Athena teams; this is planned to be ready in six months. This white paper will be made publicly available in arXiv as in previous Athena synergy exercises (overview papers).
