Turbulence, Dynamos, Accretion Disks, Pulsars and Collective Plasma Processes: First Kodai-Trieste Workshop on Plasma Astrophysics held at the Kodaikanal Observatory, India, August 27 - September 7, 2007

It is well established and appreciated by now that more than 99% of the baryonic matter in the universe is in the plasma state. Most astrophysical systems could be approximated as conducting fluids in a gravitational field. It is the combined effect of these two that gives rise to the mind boggling variety of configurations in the form of filaments, loops, jets and arches. The plasma structures that cannot last for more than a second or less in a laboratory remain intact for astronomical time and spatial scales in an astrophysical setting. The case in point is the well known extragalactic jets whose collimation and stability has remained an enigma inspite of the efforts of many for many long years. The high energy radiation sources such as the active galactic nuclei again summon the coherent plasma radiation processes for their exceptionally large output from regions of relatively small physical sizes. The generation of magnetic field, anomalous transport of angular momentum with decisive bearing on star formation processes, the ubiquitous MHD turbulence under conditions irreproducible in terrestrial laboratories are some of the generic issues still awaiting a concerted effort for their understanding. Quantum Plasmas, pair plasmas and pair-ion plasmas exist under extreme conditions in planetary interiors and exotic stars. In this workshop plasma physicists, astrophysicists and plasma astrophysicists are brought together to discuss these issues.

Table of Contents:
J. Niemela, Hydrodynamic Turbulence in classical and quantum fluids; M. L. Goldstein, Turbulence and global properties of the solar wind; J. Niemela, Rayleigh-Benard convection at very high Rayleigh numbers; M. L. Goldstein, Efforts to simulate solar wind turbulence; P. K. Manoharan, Solar Wind Turbulence and Scintillation Studies; V. Krishan, Modeling of spectral distribution in the solar wind though Hall-MHD; S. Sridhar, Plasma turbulence in the interstellar medium; R. Bingham, Neutrino driven plasma turbulence and supernovae explosions; S. Sridhar, MHD turbulence; A. R. Chouduri Dynamo process in the astrophysical universe; V. K. Gaur, The Earth's main geomagnetic field: Operation of a self excited dynamo; A. R. Chouduri, The flux transport dynamo in the Sun; V. K. Gaur, Kinematic theory and the dynamo conditions; A. Mangalam, Constraints on dynamo action; V. Krishan, Alpha effect in partially ionized plasmas; Piyali Chatterjee, Predicting solar cycles with a flux transport dynamo model; J. L. Han, Manifestation of pulsars -- General introduction; A. A. Deshpande, Individual Pulses; R. T. Gangadhara, Radio Pulsar Emission Geometry; G. J. Qiao, High Energy Observations of pulsars; Chen Wang, Wave propagation in magnetosphere; J. L. Han, Pulsars as probes; G. J. Qiao, Particle acceleration and radiation in magnetosphere; A. A. Deshpande, Pulsar evolution; R. T. Gangadhara, Possible Pulsar Radiation process; G. S. Lakhina, An overview of the magnetosphere,substorms and geomagnetic storms; P. K. Shukla, Collective Nonlinear Processes in Very Dense Plasmas; P. K. Shukla, Collective Interactions in Complex Plasmas; V. Krishan, MRI in accretion disks; B. P. Pandey, The dynamics of magnetized accretion discs; P. Subramanian, Hybrid viscosity and the magnetoviscous instability; B. P. Pandey, Hall MHD in astrophysics; B. Mukhopadhyay, Transonic properties of the accretion disk around compact objects; G. Thejappa, Propagation Effects on Visibility and Directivity of Interplanetary Radio Bursts; P. Venkatakrishnan, Measurement of Solar Magnetic Fields; Sanjiv Kumar Tiwari, Evolution of Helicity in The Sun; G. Thejappa, Low Frequency Waves Observed by Lunar Prospector above the Day side Surface of the Moon; R. Bingham, Coherent Radiative Processes; R. M. C. Thomas, Emission of radiation in pulsar magnetosphere owing to charged particle acceleration; A. K. Singal, The maximum brightness temperature limit - Inverse Compton vs. Diamagnetic effects; R. P. Sharma, Generation Of Nonlinear Localized Wave Packets Of Kinetic Alfven Waves in Solar Plasmas and particle acceleration; Mradual Sharma, Hydromagnteic Instability in differentially rotating flow; Nilay Bhatt, Broadband spectral modeling of microquasars; Binil Aryal, Coexistence of chiral symmetry restoration and random orientation of galaxies; Nikhil Chakrabarti, Nonlinear Jeans instability in presence of uniform rotation; Raju Khanal, Kinetic Trajectory Simulation Model of Magnetized Plasma Sheaths; Siomel Savio Odriozola, Simulation of the dynamics in the magnetospheric current sheet for ifferent conditions of the interplanetary magnetic field; Tarsem Singh Gill, Ion acoustic solitons in a weakly relativistic plasma with non-thermal electrons and other electron distributions relevant to space plasma