International School of Cosmic Ray Astrophysics <<Maurice M. Shapiro>>

21^st Course: Astroparticle Physics: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
1-7 August, 2018

With the advent of high powered lasers it has become possible to simulate astrophysical processes in the laboratory, e.g. we observe amplification of seed magnetic fields by plasma turbulence generated by laser-produced colliding plasma flows. Such turbulent and magnetized plasmas can drive plasma instabilities that energize electrons above the thermal background, thus providing a possible injection mechanism for cosmic ray acceleration. An ongoing experiment is studying whether 2nd-order Fermi acceleration indeed occurs in such environments.