Abstract

Following the Sesto 2001, 2007 and 2013 Conferences, we are organizing a new Conference in Sesto Pusteria, in the heart of the Italian Dolomites, on the evolution and formation of cosmic structures with clusters of galaxies. Over the last six years, new multi-wavelength observations have fueled significant progress in our understanding of cluster formation and evolution, and at the same time, have opened new outstanding questions. The combination of SZ and X-ray observations has revealed unexpected properties of the cluster population across cosmic epochs, while the sadly short life of Hitomi has shown that high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy can potentially reveal the complex small-scale physics of the Intra-Cluster Medium. An increasing number of studies of clusters at z>1 have shed new light on the epoch and formation history of cluster galaxies in contrast with those in lower density environments. The application of gravitational lensing techniques on spectacular HST-ACS data, combined with the novel use of integral field spectrographs, has allowed not only an extremely accurate reconstruction of their mass distributions, but also the investigation of magnified, very high-redshift galaxies. Thanks to ALMA and LOFAR, new observational windows have been opened on a new discovery space, from the study of the cold gas in star forming regions at the center of high redshift clusters, to the detection of the relativistic population of electron tracing large scale shocks in the cluster outskirts. At the same time, recent (e.g. Planck, SPT, ACT) and forthcoming (e.g. SPT-3G, eROSITA, Euclid), large-scale cluster surveys are set to fully exploit the potential of galaxy clusters for cosmological applications. Finally, the much wider dynamical ranges, now accessible to numerical simulations, have led to a new understanding of the achievements and of the shortcomings of the current modelling of galaxy clusters in the cosmological framework. The aim of this conference is to bring together theoreticians and observational astronomers working at different wavelengths to discuss both recent results and future prospects in the study of cosmic evolution through galaxy clusters.