The Eighteenth International Conference on Few Body Problems in Physics

Few-Body 18 (FB18), the Eighteenth International Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics was held at the Mendes Convention Centre, Santos, São Paulo, Brazil, from August 21 to 26, 2006.

Few-nucleon systems, QCD aspects of hadronic structure, and atomic-molecular systems were the three main subjects of research in few-body physics that submitted most of the contributions to FB18. In view of the recent experimental results obtained in cold atom laboratories (particularly by the Innsbruck group), where predictions of low-energy few-body systems can be tested by manipulation of two-atom interactions (Feshbach resonance techniques), the conference received quite a large number of contributions on this subject. So, new and relevant research in cold atom physics was presented. As examples, Hulet, in a plenary talk, reported on the "formation of fermionic pairing in trapped gas" (relevant for superfluidity); and Helmerson described the first evidence on obtaining persistent currents in superfluid Bose gas.

On recent achievements in nucleon structure, there were the reports of Thomas, Bijker and Platchkov (the latter one considering experimental results on gluonic contributions to the nucleon spin). Recent investigations of relativistic nuclear systems were reported by Franz Gross. On nuclear structure and nuclear forces there were plenary talks by Robilotta, Machleidt, van Kolck, and Meissner. Halo nuclei investigations (experimentally and theoretically) are considered quite promising avenues of research during the next few years (see the talks of Garrido, Drake, and Lepine). The treatment of few-body systems in the scaling limit, with applications in both nuclear and atomic systems, is also promising (see talks of Hammer, Garrido and Frederico).

The plenary talks included also short reports (20 minutes) of several relevant experimental efforts that are being performed in few-body physics. The summary talk of Slaus is quite clarifying about recent developments, challenges and perspectives for the next few years.

All plenary talks and most of the parallel talks can be accessed from the past-conference web-pages: www.fb18.com.br (or www.ift.unesp.br/fb18 ). The proceedings of the conference will be published by Nuclear Physics A (containing 160 contributions) during 2007.

The FB18 conference had near 300 registered participants from about 37 countries. The conference had 172 talks, counting the plenary talks and selected oral contributions. The number of pre-registrations (of persons connected with academic institutions) reached 319, with 269 abstracts of contributions published in the "FB18 Book of Abstracts" [published by "Cultura Academica" (ISBN 85-98605-10-7)]. About 80 posters were presented during the meeting. Unfortunately, about 7% of pre-registered scientists failed to attend the conference due to cancellations of flight bookings (mainly caused by the financial demise of Varig, the main airline company connecting Brazil to Europe and Asia). A small percentage also failed to attend the conference due to the difficulties of the organizers to warranty financial support (with enough time left to book economic flights). FB18 also had about 10% on-site registrations, of people not pre-registered [mostly from institutions in the south of Brazil, interested in attending part of the lectures].

The next meeting, the 19th International Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics, will take place in Bonn, Germany, in the year 2009. The conference organizer is Ulf-G. Meissner.

Finally, we would like to point out that the IUPAP sponsorship of FB18 was very relevant, in particular in obtaining financial support from the Brazilian funding agencies. However, it should be mentioned that one of the main difficulties encountered was the fact that the amount of financial support (from the funding agencies) was uncertain at the time of the pre-registrations (in view of several other international meetings being organized in Brazil).

In this respect, we are of the opinion that the (very welcome) emphasis of IUPAP in assisting scientists from developing/disadvantaged countries to attend international conferences, should be extended more broadly to the organizers of international conferences in such countries. With a guarantee of more financial support (before the deadline of pre-registrations), there could have been a significant larger number of participants.

We also feel that a conference like FB18, considering the general topics and the number of participants, should be considered by the C12 Commission as a type A conference.

The FB18 Conference Organizers