Astro2010 White Papers I think are interesting

The deadline for the submission of science White Paper to the U.S. National Academy of Science's Astro2010 Decadal Survey was Sunday 15th February 2009. Now its down to the poor saps on the actual survey panels to read (or skim) through vast numbers of seven page documents.

Although their aim is to convince the Decadal Survey panel members of the importance of their relative scientific areas to the future of astronomy and astrophysics in the U.S., these White Papers are interesting as mini-reviews of how their authors view their respective fields and how they'd like to see them develop.

Here are the White Papers that (a) were also posted on arXiv by their authors by March 3rd 2009, and that (b) I consider somewhat interesting, or (c) I had some involvement with and are therefore by definition interesting. This is a very small selection of the approximately 320 or so science White Papers submitted to the Decadal Survey.

I've trimmed the author lists down to "First Author, et al" (even in cases where there are only two authors) to avoid the artificial popularity contest created by the variable number of endorsers on each White Paper.

I've ordered them crudely in terms of our Galaxy, galaxies in general, high redshift, AGN, clusters, planets, stars and assorted other phenomena.

Structure and Dynamics of the Milky Way: an Astro2010 Science White Paper
Authors: M. J. Reid, K. M. Menten, A. Brunthaler, G. A. Moellenbrock, arXiv:0902.3928 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 2 figures

Young stellar clusters and star formation throughout the Galaxy
Authors: Eric Feigelson, arXiv:0903.0374 [pdf]

Comments: Science Working Paper for the Astro2010 Decadal Survey. For a version with color figures, see this http URL

The History of Star Formation in Galaxies
Authors: Thomas M. Brown, et al, arXiv:0902.2973 [pdf]
Comments: Science white paper submitted to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey. 7 pages, 4 figures, PDF

How do Galaxies Accrete Gas and Form Stars?
Authors: M.E. Putman, et al, arXiv:0902.4717 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, Science white paper for the Astro2010 Decadal Survey, 2 color figures

The Star Formation Histories of Disk and E/S0 Galaxies from Resolved Stars
Authors: Knut A.G. Olsen, et al, arXiv:0902.4216 [pdf]
Comments: Science white paper submitted to Astro2010 Decadal Survey GAN Panel 7 pages + cover page, 2 figures

Kinematics and Formation Mechanisms of High-Redshift Galaxies
Authors: David R. Law, et al, arXiv:0902.2567 [pdf]
Comments: 8 pages total. White paper submitted to the Astro 2010 Decadal Survey

Nearby Galaxies: Templates for Galaxies Across Cosmic Time
Authors: F. J. Lockman, et al, arXiv:0902.3963 [pdf, other]
Comments: science white paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Survey

The Galactic Center: A Laboratory for Fundamental Astrophysics and Galactic Nuclei
Authors: A. Ghez, et al, arXiv:0903.0383 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: An ASTRO2010 White Paper. Animations and high resolution images can be found at this http URL

The Very Local Universe in X-rays
Authors: A. Ptak, et al, arXiv:0902.4239 [pdf]

Comments: 8 pages, Astro2010 Science White paper. Full-resolution version available at this http URL

Starburst Galaxies: Outflows of Metals and Energy into the IGM
Authors: David K. Strickland, et al, arXiv:0902.2945 [pdf, other]
Comments: White Paper for US Astro2010 Decadal Survey. 7 pages. Technical supplement at this http URL

Astrophysics from the Highly-Redshifted 21 cm Line
Authors: Steven Furlanetto, et al, arXiv:0902.3011 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 5 figures, science white paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Survey "Galaxies across Cosmic Time" Science Frontier Panel

Radio Supernovae: Circum-Stellar Investigation (C.S.I.) of Supernova Progenitor Stars
Authors: Christopher J. Stockdale, et al, arXiv:0902.4059 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 4 figures. White Paper submitted to the Astro2010 SSE panel

Despite the slightly cheesy title (CSI? That is so five years ago.) this is actually a really interesting White Paper IMHO.

Plasma Physics Processes of the Interstellar Medium
Authors: Steven Spangler, et al, arXiv:0902.4181 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: White paper submitted for consideration of the Astro2010 Decadal Survey Committee, in the area of "Galactic Neighborhood" (GAN)

In Situ Probes of the First Galaxies and Reionization: Gamma-ray Bursts
Authors: Matthew McQuinn, et al, arXiv:0902.3442 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 3 figures, science white paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Survey

Imaging the cool gas, dust, star formation, and AGN in the first galaxies
Authors: C.L. Carilli, et al, arXiv:0902.3671 [pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages total. White paper submitted to the Astro 2010 Decadal Survey

High Redshift Radio Galaxies: Laboratories for Massive Galaxy and Cluster Formation in the early Universe
Authors: G. Miley, et al, arXiv:0902.3677 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages total. White paper submitted to the Astro 2010 Decadal Survey

The Growth of Supermassive Black Holes Across Cosmic Time
Authors: K. Nandra, et al, arXiv:0903.0547 [pdf]

Comments: 8 pages, Science White paper submitted to Astro2010 Decadal survey. Supplementary information available at this http URL

Diffuse baryonic matter beyond 2020
Authors: M. Markevitch, et al, arXiv:0902.3709 [pdf, other]
Comments: pdflatex, 9 pages, 3 color figures. White paper submitted for NRC Astro2010 Decadal Survey

Nice enough paper, but they totally cheated on the paper length. You're allowed 7 pages plus 1 cover page, including all figures and references. The Decadal Survey should not consider this paper. The rest of us managed to follow the rules. Every panel or time allocation committee I've been on seems to get at least one wise guy who thinks they can get away with an extra page, often in the hope that only the last page will be removed (often only with the reference list on it).

How and When do Planets Form? The Inner Regions of Planet Forming Disks at High Spatial and Spectral Resolution
Authors: R. Millan-Gabet, John D. Monnier, arXiv:0902.2576 [pdf]
Comments: Science White Paper submitted to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey

New Worlds: Evaluating terrestrial planets as astrophysical objects
Authors: Caleb A. Scharf, et al, arXiv:0902.2755 [pdf]
Comments: Submitted as a White Paper to the 2010 Astronomy & Astrophysics Decadal Survey

The Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems: The Search for and Characterization of Young Planets
Authors: Charles Beichman, et al, arXiv:0902.2972 [pdf]
Comments: White Paper Submission to Astro2010

X-ray Studies of Planetary Systems: An Astro2010 Decadal Survey White Paper
Authors: Eric Feigelson, et al, arXiv:0903.0598 [pdf, other]

No Planet Left Behind: Investigating Planetary Diversity and Architecture with SIM Lite
Authors: S. R. Kulkarni, et al, arXiv:0902.3475 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 7 pages, 3 figures, submitted to The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey

MARVELS: Revealing the Formation and Dynamical Evolution of Giant Planet Systems

Authors: Jian Ge, et al, arXiv:0903.0181 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: Unpublished SDSS-III white paper for the US Decadal Survey. See this http URL for details of the international SDSS-III project

Toward the End of Stars: Discovering the Galaxy's Coldest Brown Dwarfs
Authors: Adam J. Burgasser, et al, arXiv:0902.2604 [pdf]
Comments: 8 pages, 3 figures, Astro2010 Science White Paper

Temporal Variability of Stars and Stellar Systems
Authors: T. A. Lister, et al, arXiv:0902.2966 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Submitted as a White Paper to the SSE Panel of the Astro2010 Decadal Survey

Quantifying Stellar Mass Loss with High Angular Resolution Imaging
Authors: Stephen Ridgway, et al, arXiv:0902.3008 [pdf]
Comments: Science white paper prepared for Astro2010

X-ray Timing of Neutron Stars, Astrophysical Probes of Extreme Physics
Authors: Z. Arzoumanian, et al, arXiv:0902.3264 [pdf]
Comments: 8 pages. Science white paper submitted to Astro2010: The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey

X-ray Timing of Stellar Mass Black Holes
Authors: John A. Tomsick, et al, arXiv:0902.4238 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: White paper submitted to the Astro 2010 Decadal Survey

Stellar-Mass Black Holes and Their Progenitors
Authors: J. M. Miller, et al, arXiv:0902.4677 [pdf]
Comments: Astro 2010 Science White Paper

Spin and Relativistic Phenomena Around Black Holes
Authors: L. Brenneman, et al, arXiv:0902.4691 [pdf]
Comments: Astro 2010 Science White Paper

Gravitational Wave Astronomy Using Pulsars: Massive Black Hole Mergers & the Early Universe
Authors: P. Demorest. et al, arXiv:0902.2968 [pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, white paper submitted to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey. For NANOGrav information, see this http URL

The Dynamic X-ray Sky of the Local Universe
Authors: Alicia M. Soderberg, et al, arXiv:0902.3674 [pdf]
Comments: 8 pages, 2 figures; White Paper submitted to the Astro2010 SSE panel

Origin and evolution of cosmic accelerators - the unique discovery potential of an UHE neutrino telescope
Authors: Pisin Chen, et al, arXiv:0902.3288 [pdf, other]
Comments: 7 pages, 3 figures, submitted to US Astronomy Decadal Survey (2010-2020)

Properties of Dark Matter Revealed by Astrometric Measurements of the Milky Way and Local Galaxies
Authors: Edward Shaya, et al, arXiv:0902.2835 [pdf]
Comments: 8 pages, 3 figures, White Paper for the Decadal Survey in Astrophysics

The Need for Plasma Astrophysics in Understanding Life Cycles of Active Galaxies
Authors: H. Li, et al, arXiv:0902.3469 [pdf]
Comments: a White Paper submitted to GCT and FCP panels of Astro2010

A New Era in Extragalactic Background Light Measurements: The Cosmic History of Accretion, Nucleosynthesis and Reionization
Authors: Asantha Cooray et al, arXiv:0902.2372 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 7 pages; Science White Paper for the US Astro 2010-2020 Decadal Survey. If interested in further community-wide efforts on this topic please contact the first author

Astrophysics with Radioactive Atomic Nuclei
Authors: R. Diehl et al, arXiv:0902.2494 [pdf]
Comments: 7 pages, white paper for US Nat.Acad.Sci. Decadal Survey "Astro2010"

Solid State Astrophysics: Probing Interstellar Dust and Gas Properties with X-rays
Authors: Julia C. Lee, et al, arXiv:0902.4671 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 6 figures. White paper submitted to the Astro2010 Decadal survey for Astronomy and Astrophysics

Understanding of the role of magnetic fields: Galactic perspective
Authors: A. Lazarian, S. Boldyrev, C. Forest, J. Sarff, P. Terry, arXiv:0902.3618 [pdf]
Comments: 8 pages, white paper submitted to the Galactic Neighborhood (GAN) Panel

[Updated 03/09/09. Added the following White Paper.]

A complete view of galaxy evolution: panchromatic luminosity functions and the generation of metals
Andrew W. Blain, et al, arXiv:0903.1272 [pdf]
Comments: A whitepaper submitted on 15th February 2009 in response to the call from the Astro2010 panel: astro2010.org; uploaded as an 8-page pdf file

[Updated 03/11/09. Added the following White Paper.]

A Proposal for a Renewed Research Emphasis in Astrophysical and Celestial Dynamics
D. J. Scheeres, et al, arXiv:0903.1650 [pdf, other]
Comments: 6 pp. White Paper submitted for the 2010 Decadal Survey, to panels PSF, SSE, GAN, & GCT