Solar, stellar and cosmological plasmas: a synthesis of data, modelling and theory.

等离子体的物理学--尤其是磁化等离子体--决定了可见宇宙的大部分行为，从太阳的外层到可见宇宙的最远端。在这个提议中，我们将重点放在等离子体天体物理学中的几个关键未解决的问题上，这些问题也是更广泛和更深入地理解整个宇宙等离子体的原型。它们是：(A)高能辐射电子、离子和中子在太阳耀斑和行星际空间中是如何表现的？它们是如何加速的，它们是被发射的吗？它们在耀斑及其对地面的影响中扮演着关键角色吗？(B)太阳如何在其磁化大气中储存和释放能量，从表面流动到低层大气耀斑活动、日冕物质抛射和星际激波？从太阳等离子体的行为中可以学到什么，以帮助解决围绕正在形成的热星或磁化恒星周围的圆盘和团块等等离子体结构的争议？(C)脉冲星如何辐射？脱钩时代(非常早期的宇宙)不断变化的磁场如何在宇宙中播撒高能粒子，并影响结构的形成？我们的方案将观测数据与理论和数值模拟相结合，涉及范围广泛的天文学和技术问题，从太阳表面流动到高能粒子加速和星际物质；从电磁波到相对论粒子束；从图像处理到微弱信号的统计分析。我们将把所有这些技能运用到天文问题上，这些问题是目前更好地理解宇宙的努力的核心。

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 plasma astrophysics that are also prototypes for a wider and deeper understanding of cosmic plasmas as a whole. These are: (a) how do high-energy radiating electrons, ions and neutrons 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? (b) how does the Sun store and release energy in its magnetised atmosphere, from surface flows, to low atmosphere flaring activity, coronal mass ejections and interplanetary shocks? And what can be learned from the behaviour of solar plasmas to help resolve controversies over plasma structures like disks and clumps around hot stars or magnetised stars that are just forming? (c) How do pulsars radiate? How might the changing magnetic field at the decoupling era (the very early universe) seed the cosmos with energetic particles and influence the formation of structure? Our programme combines observational data with theoretical and numerical modelling, and spans a wide range of astronomical and technical problems, from solar surface flows to high-energy particle acceleration and circumstellar matter; 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.