Abstract

This workshop aims at presenting recent research on the longstanding problems of particle acceleration and transport in different astrophysical environments, such as the Sun, the heliosphere, galactic sources, and extragalactic sources. The purpose is to bring together experts in the fields of cosmic ray physics, plasma turbulence, acceleration processes, and particle transport, in order to stimulate cross-fertilization and to exchange scientific information among different areas. Indeed, the basic theoretical framework adopted to describe particle acceleration and transport is common to all those fields but the properties of the environments change noticeably. In addition, in-situ and remote observations often question the validity of the standard theories and prompt for further investigations to be interpreted. The availability of large datasets from new instrumentation and recent theoretical and numerical studies give the opportunity to advance the models and possibly to answer some of the basic unresolved issues. Exchange of ideas among the various fields would certainly speed up this process. We strongly encourage to present to the different communities recent, pioneering observations, theories, and models that try to explain and describe processes of particle acceleration and transport. We try to bring together scientists who would like to understand what is happening beyond their field of specialty. In order to promote an efficient exchange of ideas among different fields, each research area (solar, heliospheric, galactic, and extragalactic physics) will be introduced by a 40 minutes broad review talk. The majority of the talks will be upon invitation (30 minutes each), and at the end of each day a time slot of about 45 minutes will be dedicated to open discussions on the daily sessions led by a couple of scientists. Contributed talks and poster presentations will be organized.