Plasma physics and astrophysics: retrospects, state-of-the art, and prospects

Abstract

Within the special issue “Classical and quantum plasmas: matter under extreme conditions” a series of papers are included that were presented at the international workshop “Plasma Physics and Astrophysics up to 2020 and beyond”. This meeting was held on October 7th–8th 2019 at the Physics Department of the Universita della Calabria in Rende (Italy) and was organised by the Physics Department “Astrophysics, Geophysics and Plasma Group” in connection with the celebration of Pierluigi Veltri’s 70th birthday. The goal of this interdisciplinary workshop was to review some of the main achievements in plasma physics in the last five decades from laboratory to space and astrophysical plasmas and to discuss future developments. It was attended by experimentalists, theoreticians and by scientists involved in numerical plasma modelling with the aim of promoting the exchange of ideas and collaborations between different communities working on plasma physics in different contexts. The participants discussed fundamental physics aspects of fluid and plasma turbulence, of magnetic field line reconnection, of shock wave dynamics and of kinetic and nonlinear plasma phenomena highlighting new results and novel approaches, as well as exchanging ideas between different branches of plasma physics.