Related papers: Science with hot astrophysical plasmas
Planets reflect and linearly polarize the radiation that they receive from their host stars. The emergent polarization is sensitive to aspects of the planet atmosphere such as the gas composition and the occurrence of condensates and their…
High energy astrophysics is one of the most active branches in contemporary astrophysics. It studies astrophysical objects that emit X-ray and gamma-ray photons, such as accreting super-massive and stellar-size black holes, and various…
Particle acceleration at plasma shocks appears to be ubiquitous in the universe, spanning systems in the heliosphere, supernova remnants, and relativistic jets in distant active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts. This review addresses some of…
Previous generations of X-ray observatories revealed a group of massive binaries that were relatively bright X-ray emitters. This was attributed to emission of shock-heated plasma in the wind-wind interaction zone located between the stars.…
Several popular cosmological models predict that most of the baryonic mass in the local universe is located in filamentary and sheet-like structures associated with galaxy overdensities. This gas is expected to be gravitationally heated to…
The abundances of gas and dust (solids and complex molecules) in the interstellar medium (ISM) as well as their composition and structures impact practically all of astrophysics. Fundamental processes from star formation to stellar winds to…
We discuss the outstanding issues of the interstellar medium which will depend on the application of knowledge from plasma physics. We particularly advocate attention to recent developments in experimental plasma physics, and urge that the…
Major scientific questions and research opportunities are described on 10 unprioritized plasma astrophysics topics: (1) magnetic reconnection, (2) collisionless shocks and particle acceleration, (3) waves and turbulence, (4) magnetic…
Massive stars drive powerful, supersonic winds via the radiative momentum associated with the thermal UV emission from their photospheres. Shock phenomena are ubiquitous in these winds, heating them to millions, and sometimes tens of…
The values of electrical conductivity of plasma of stars with a magnetic field or moving in the magnetic field of the other component in a binary system could be of significant interest, since they are useful for the study of thermal…
A forefront area of research concerns the exploration of the properties of hadronic matter under extreme conditions of temperature and density, and the determination of the equation of state--the relation between pressure, temperature and…
Most of our knowledge of the physical processes in distant plasmas is obtained through measurement of the radiation they produce. Here we provide an overview of the main collisional and radiative processes and examples of diagnostics…
This paper considers the problem of modeling the light polarization that emerges from an astrophysical plasma composed of atoms whose excitation state is significantly influenced by the anisotropy of the incident radiation field. In…
X-ray spectra of galaxy clusters are dominated by the thermal emission from the hot intracluster medium. In some cases, besides the thermal component, spectral models require additional components associated, e.g., with resonant scattering…
The High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (HETGS) onboard the Chandra X-ray Observatory has so far produced a large number of high resolution X-ray spectra with unprecedented spectroscopic details. Spectra from outflows in galactic…
Extrasolar planets appear in a chemical diversity unseen in our own solar system. Despite their atmospheres being cold, continuous and transient plasma processes do affect these atmosphere where clouds form with great efficiency. Clouds can…
Modern astrophysics, especially at GeV energy scales and above is a typical example where several disciplines meet: The location and distribution of the sources is the domain of astronomy. At distances corresponding to significant redshift…
Continuum gamma-ray emission produced by interactions of cosmic rays with interstellar matter and radiation fields is a probe of non-thermal particle populations in galaxies. After decades of continuous improvements in experimental…
The hot, diffuse gas that fills the largest overdense structures in the Universe -- clusters of galaxies and a web of giant filaments connecting them -- provides us with tools to address a wide array of fundamental astrophysical and…
Most of the visible matter in the Universe is in a plasma state, or more specifically is composed of ionized or partially ionized gas permeated by magnetic fields. Thanks to recent advances on the theory and detection of cosmic magnetic…