Consolidated Grant in Solar and Plasma Astrophysics

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The physics of plasmas - particularly magnetised plasmas - dictates the behaviour of much of the visible universe, from the outer layers of the Sun to the furthest reaches of the observable cosmos. In this proposal, we focus on several key unsolved problems in solar and plasma astrophysics that are also prototypes for a wider and deeper understanding of cosmic plasmas as a whole. These are: how do high-energy radiating particles behave in solar flares and in interplanetary space? How are they accelerated, are they beamed and do they play a key role in flares and their terrestrial impact? How does the Sun store and release energy in its magnetised atmosphere, and how can we learn about this process by studying the radiation from low in its atmosphere? In the Sun and the wider Universe, electric fields arise spontaneously from collective plasma dynamics and we will look at how these can lead to multiple acceleration sites, energetic particles and ionisation fronts, particularly when constrained by geometry or magnetic fields.Our programme combines observational data with theoretical and numerical modelling, and spans a wide range of astronomical and technical problems, from the modeling of the path of radiation in a plasma to high-energy particle acceleration; from electromagnetic waves to relativistic particle beams; from image processing to statistical analysis of weak signals. We will bring all these skills to bear on astronomical questions at the heart of current efforts to better understand the universe.