Closing Summary: Twentieth Stellar Pulsation Conference

Abstract

There have been many significant advances in the 40 years since the first stellar pulsation conference in 1971, including new instrumentation and observational techniques, discovery of many thousands of variable stars from extensive surveys, and prediction, discovery, and explanation of many new types of variable stars. These advances have generated new insights into the physics required to understand and interpret stellar phenomena, and motivated progress in computational capabilities. However, with increased resolution and sensitivity, data volume and accuracy, and the ability to include more complex processes in computational models, we also have new challenges and questions. This conference pointed to some emerging directions for the study and application of stellar pulsations. Here we summarize a few of the new discoveries, observational capabilities, progress in theory and computational models, and questions discussed.