Kavli IPMU workshop

Dates:
  Monday, March 9 - Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Venue:
  Lecture Hall, Kavli IPMU, Kashiwa Campus, The University of Tokyo
  Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan
  URL: https://www.ipmu.jp/en

Scientific Rationale:

Acceleration of charged particles out of their thermal distribution is one of the fundamental features in space, solar, and astrophysical plasma environments. While the acceleration mechanism remains unclear, there have been accumulating pieces of evidence or indication that magnetic reconnection plays a key role by converting magnetic energy into both thermal and non-thermal particle energy.

To tackle the still-unknown connection between particle acceleration and magnetic reconnection with emphasis on the connection for coronal plasmas in solar flares, the Workshop aims the following:

(a) Put together recent observational and theoretical/simulation studies relevant to particle acceleration in solar flares or in cosmic plasmas under the context of magnetic reconnection. Identify key missing investigations and discuss their implications to the PhoENiX spacecraft mission.

PhoENiX is currently under study for observing flares with high-precision, high-sensitivity imaging spectroscopy in soft and hard X-rays simultaneously utilizing newly developed X-ray photon-counting technologies and with spectropolarimetry in soft gamma-rays.

(b) Survey near-future plans of observations as well as directions of theoretical/simulation studies which help understand the connection between particle acceleration and magnetic reconnection, and could even address particle acceleration processes themselves. Discuss possible synergy among these near-future activities and the PhoENiX mission.

For the above aims, we plan to invite about 15 distinguished researchers who are leading studies relevant to particle acceleration in solar flares.

Topics for the Workshop include:

(1) Solar X-ray observations: present and future missions
    (such as RHESSI, NuSTAR, FOXSI, MinXSS, SO/STIX, ASO-S/HXI, FIERCE, and PhoENiX)

(2) Solar spectroscopic observations in EUV/SXR wavelengths and future prospects

(3) Solar polarimetric observations in HXR/soft gamma-rays and future prospects

(4) Solar radio observations and future prospects

(5) Current understanding of particle acceleration in the solar corona

(6) Current understanding of particle acceleration in astrophysical and magnetospheric plasmas

Confirmed invited speakers:

  Natasha Jeffrey (Northumbria University, UK)
  Pascal Saint-Hilaire (UC Berkeley, US)
  Eduard Kontar (University of Glasgow, UK)
  James Drake (University of Maryland, US)
  Fan Guo (Los Alamos National Laboratory, US)
  Noriyuki Narukage (NAOJ, Japan)
  Weiqun Gan (Purple Mountain Observatory, China)
  Mitsuo Oka (UC Berkeley, US)
  Yang Su (Purple Mountain Observatory, China)
  Felix Aharonian (MPI, Germany & DIAS, Ireland)
  Alexander Warmuth (AIP, Germany)
  Amir Caspi (SwRI, US)
  Slava Turyshev (JPL, US)
  Lindsay Glesener (University of Minnesota, US)
  Hiroki Yoneda (Kavli IPMU, The University of Tokyo, Japan)

Organizers (in alphabetical order):

  Tomoko Kawate (ISAS/JAXA)
  Noriyuki Narukage (NAOJ)
  Mitsuo Oka (UCB)
  Taro Sakao (ISAS/JAXA)
  Iku Shinohara (ISAS/JAXA)
  Tadayuki Takahashi (Kavli IPMU, The University of Tokyo)

Sponsors:
  Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU),
    The University of Tokyo
  Grant for research meetings, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS),
    Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
  JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) JP18H03724