International Topical Conference on Plasma Physics: New Frontiers inNonlinear Sciences. Sponsored by FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e aTecnologia (Portugal)

Abstract

The "International Topical Conference on Plasma Physics: New Frontiers in Nonlinear Sciences" was held at the University of Algarve (UA), Faro (Portugal), during the period 6–10 September 1999. The conference was organized by P K Shukla, R Bingham, J T Mendonça and L Stenflo with the help of an international advisory board and a program committee that included scientists from all over the world. The conference enters into a series of previous biennial activities that we have held at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, since 1989.The purpose of the Faro meeting was to provide an informal forum for scientists who have dealt with various aspects ofnonlinear processes in space, astrophysical and laboratory plasmas, as well as in fluids and nonlinear optics. The selectedtopics, which were interdisciplinary, are expected to have a great deal of impact on the development of nonlinear sciencesin the coming millennium.The response of the conference was almost overwhelming. It was attended by approximately 120 delegates from Europe,USA, Japan, and developing countries. Many participants were young researchers from both the industrial and developingcountries, as the organizers tried to keep a good balance in inviting senior and younger generations of nonlinear scientiststo our Faro conference.The scientific program included five review talks (45 minutes) and thirty-five invited topical lectures (30 minutes). Inaddition, there were about eighty poster papers in three sessions. The latter gave opportunities to younger physicistsfor displaying the results of their recent work and to obtain comments from the other participants. During the five daysat the UA, we focused on fundamental aspects of: (i) the nonlinear physics in various branches of sciences (plasmas, fluids,and optics), (ii) nonlinearities in space and astrophysics, (iii) coherent processes in non-ideal systems (colloidal and dusty as well as pure electron plasmas), (iv) nonlinear charged particle beams and laser/neutrino-plasma interactions, and(v) nonlinearities in controlled laboratory devices. The focus was on nonlinear phenomena involving wave–wave and wave–particle interactions in ideal and non-ideal complex plasmas, intense short laser pulse interactions with plasmas and atomic clusters, the Kerr nonlinearity in optics, generation of harmonics as well as modulated wave packets in fluids, anomalous transport processes and complexities, etc. The nonlinear Schrödinger-like models for the propagation of particle and laser beams and optical pulses are still common in nonlinear dispersive media. The formation of coherent nonlinear structures (voids, envelope solitons, shocks, various types of solitary vortices, and vortex crystals) was exclusively demonstrated in data from low-temperature laboratory and space plasmas. For example, observations from the auroral ionosphere and microgravity dusty plasma experiments reveal the simultaneous presence of solitary vortex structures of various scale sizes as well as large scale density holes (voids). During the Faro meeting, some talks also concerned the role of self-organized criticality in nature as well as techniques for controlling chaos. Computer modeling of numerous kinetic instabilities and phase space vortex structures revived renewed interest at the conference. Furthermore, charged particle acceleration involving collective processes in ionospheric, astrophysical, and laboratory plasmas remained frontiers of the nonlinear sciences. Novel fields identified during the conference were dusty and neutrino plasma physics, which take advantage of knowledge from condensed matter and particle physics, making plasma physics truly cross-disciplinaryand very fascinating with wide ranging applications. Most of the contributions from the Faro meeting appear in this TopicalIssue of Physica Scripta, which will be distributed to all the participants. It is expected that the papers of the present proceedings, which systematically describe the advancement of a particular subject matter, shall be useful for understanding the many complex nonlinear phenomena that are occurring in science and technology.The organizers are grateful to Professor Adriano Pimpão, the President of the UA, for his generous support and warm hospitality in Faro. The excellent work of the scientific secretary Dr Rui Guerra is also acknowledged. The Editors want to express sincere gratitude to their colleagues and co-organizers Profs Tito Mendonça and Bob Bingham for their constant and wholehearted support in our endeavours. Thanks are also due to the Universidade do Algarve for providing the venue, and for administrative support, the Universidade Técnica de Lisbon for secretarial and other support, and theFCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia for a limited financial support to our conference at the UA, Faro.Finally, the organizers cordial thanks are extended to the speakers and the attendees for their contributions which resulted in the success of the Faro conference. Specifically, we appreciate the speakers for delivering excellent talks, supplying well prepared manuscripts for publication, and enhancing the nonlinear science activity at the UA, where we hope to create a new center of excellence for carrying out high quality research and for training young researchers in the fascinating new areas of nonlinear sciences which may have a tremendous impact on the development of new technologies andnew materials in the twenty-first century.