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A spectre is haunting physics---the spectre of non-thermal processes. Manifesting itself in astroparticle physics, all classical disciplines of physics and astronomy have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: While…
Since the dawn of civilization, humanity has grappled with the big questions of existence and creation. Modern cosmology seeks to answer some of these questions using a combination of mathematics and measurement. The questions people hope…
Quantum physics and biology have long been regarded as unrelated disciplines, describing nature at the inanimate microlevel on the one hand and living species on the other hand. Over the last decades the life sciences have succeeded in…
Almost a century on from the culmination of the first revolution in quantum physics, we are poised for another. Even as we engage in the creation of impactful quantum technologies, it is imperative for us to face the challenges in…
The limitations of current technology do not allow one to foresee the expansion of the humankind beyond our planet for at least a few decades. Furthermore, the laws of physics, as for as they are known, preclude any form of traveling beyond…
This Resource Letter treats the nascent discipline of physical eschatology, which deals with the future evolution of astrophysical objects, including the universe itself, and is thus both a counterpart and a complement to conventional…
A comparison of the standard models in particle physics and in cosmology demonstrates that they are not compatible, though both are well established. Basics of modern cosmology are briefly reviewed. It is argued that the measurements of the…
One of the most striking astrophysical phenomena today is the existence of cosmic ray particles with energies in excess of 10^20 eV. While their presence has been confirmed by a number of experiments, it is not clear where and how these…
The origins of life stands among the great open scientific questions of our time. While a number of proposals exist for possible starting points in the pathway from non-living to living matter, these have so far not achieved states of…
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…
Cosmology as an exact physical science is of new date, but it has long roots in the past. This essay is concerned with four important themes in the history of cosmological thought which, if taken together, offer a fairly comprehensive…
Cosmos has always sparked human curiosity to unveil and speculate its fascinating secrets. This curiosity has ultimately opened a window to other worlds. After years of observation, computation, and data analysis, scientists have revealed…
High-energy cosmic neutrinos carry unique information about the most energetic non-thermal sources in the Universe. This white paper describes the outstanding astrophysics questions that neutrino astronomy can address in the coming decade.…
How did it all begin? Although this question has undoubtedly lingered for as long as humans have walked the Earth, the answer still eludes us. Yet since my grandparents were born, scientists have been able to refine this question to a…
Nuclear Astrophysics is a field at the intersection of nuclear physics and astrophysics, which seeks to understand the nuclear engines of astronomical objects and the origin of the chemical elements. This white paper summarizes progress and…
From the humble beginnings of particle physics to groundbreaking discoveries, the journey of particle physics has revolutionized our understanding of the universe. The progression of particle physics, begin from the discovery of new…
Historically cosmic rays have always been at the intersection of astrophysics with particle physics. This is still and especially true in current days where experimenters routinely observe atmospheric showers from particles whose energies…
I present a concise review of where we stand in particle physics today. First, I will discuss the status of the Standard Model, its open problems and the expected answers from the LHC. Then I will briefly review the avenues for New Physics…
Recent international efforts have brought us closer to unveiling the century old mystery of the origin of cosmic rays. Cosmic ray, gamma ray, and neutrino observatories are reaching the necessary sensitivity to study the highest energy…
Astronomy provides a laboratory for extreme physics, a window into environments at extremes of distance, temperature and density that often can't be reproduced in Earth laboratories, or at least not right away. A surprising amount of the…