The Plasma Astrophysics working group

The “Plasma Astrophysics” working group for Plasma Observatory has the main, ambitious goal of bridging heliospheric plasmas and far astrophysical systems by tackling the following question: How could the measurements performed by Plasma Observatory in the near-Earth environment improve our knowledge of particle energization in astrophysical systems?

Composed of a diverse and complementary group of researchers, our team includes worldwide experts in:

• Star-planet interaction and heliospheric physics;
• Galactic cosmic rays and supernova remnants;
• Large-scale cosmic-ray-driven structures (winds, halos) in the inter-stellar medium;
• Intra-cluster medium and galaxy clusters;
• Compact objects.

Despite important differences, these environments show similarities, in particular highlighted by adopting adimensional parameters. In this perspective, the below figure categorizes some of these environments in the β – ω_p,e/Ω_c,e parameter space, where β is the kinetic-to-magnetic pressure ratio, ω_p,e is the electron plasma frequency, and Ω_c,e is the electron cyclotron frequency. The green box highlights the region where Plasma Observatory aims at providing unprecedented multi-scale multi-point measurements.