Letters of Intent received in 2014

LoI 2016-247
Cosmic Rays and interstellar medium

Topics

Cosmic Rays and the Interstellar medium (COSMIS)

1. Sources of Galactic cosmic rays: theory
2. Sources of Galactic cosmic rays: multi-wave length observations
3. Cosmic ray composition at high energies from the knee to the ankle.
4. Cosmic-ray propagation in the interstellar medium: theory
5. Cosmic-ray propagation in the interstellar medium: observations
6. Ionization induced by low-energy cosmic rays: from diffuse interstellar medium to pre-stellar cores.
7. The heliospheric shock: the latest results from in-situ measurements
8. Cosmic-Ray leptons and anti-matter: the very last results from AMS-02
9. Cosmic Rays and dark matter.

Rationale

Cosmic rays (CRs) are energetic particles mostly composed of nuclei which have been discovered more than one century ago by Viktor Hess. The sources of Galactic CRs and the way these particles propagate in the interstellar medium are subject to active research yet. In the recent years these aspects has been probed in particular by high-energy gamma-ray in-flight or ground based experiments (Fermi, HESS, MAGIC, Veritas, Cangaroo) preparing the era of gamma-ray astronomy foresee with the advent of the Cerenkov Telescope Array (CTA). In parallel, direct CR experiments detection (Pamela, AMS-02, Kascade, Auger) have accumulated an important amount of informations about the energy, the composition and the angular CR spectra from GeV to up to EeV energy domains. From another domain, the role cosmic rays may have in the local or global interstellar medium dynamics has appeared as an emerging issue in the molecular cloud collapse process and hence in the stellar formation cycle especially with the measurements of the ionization fraction induced by MeV-GeV CRs in diffuse and dark clouds. Moreover, the cosmic-ray spectrum at energies below the solar modulation is currently under investigation by in-situ measurements thanks to the 70s launched satellites Voyager I and II, and Pioneer X and XI. Finally, the recent AMS-02 measurements of the cosmic-ray lepton component has opened issues connecting astrophysics and particle physics challenging the very nature of dark matter.
The CR research field hence appears to be at the very centre of different domains from astrophysics and space science physics to particle physics. Within the field of astrophysics CR research is now at the cross road of high energy astrophysics and interstellar medium studies.

The LOC and SOC have already a strong experience in the organization of such events as most of them were already involved in the organization of the CRISM (Cosmic Ray and their interstellar environments) workshops held in 2009, 2011 and 2014 in Montpellier. The SOC will involve several worldwide recognized experts in CR physics: E. Amato (Arcetri observatory Italy), A.Bykov (Ioffe Inst., Russia), L. Drury (DIAS, Dublin), Y.Fukui (Nagoya University Japan), N Indriolo (Michigan Univ, USA), A.Marcowith (LUPM France), V.Ptuskin (IZMIRAN, Russia), S.Sarkar (university Oxford, GB), E. Zweibel (Univ Madison, USA).