Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics XXV

Cosmic Magnetic Fields.

It is the 25th in a continuous series of schools of astrophysics organized by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias(IAC). It aims at providing a unifying view of the physical role played by the magnetic field in a widest range of astrophysical contexts, from the Sun to the Universe as a whole.

It has been hold at the unesco word heritage city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna from November 11th to 22th, 2013. The Winter School provides a unique opportunity for the participants to broaden their knowledge in this key field of Astronomy.

The Winter School has brought together in a relaxed working atmosphere a number of the leading scientists in this field, PhD students and recent postdocs.

Scientific Rationale

Magnetic fields play an importan role in many astrophysical processes. But magnetic are difficult to dectect and difficult to model orunderstand, since the fundamental equations describing the behavior of magnetized plasmas are highly non-linear.

Hence, magnetic fields are often an inconvenient subject which is overlooked or simply neglected ('the elephant in the room', as dubbed in the school poster). Such difficulty burdens the research on magnetic fields, which has evolved to become a very technical subject, with many small disconnected communities studying specific aspects and details. The school tries to amend the situation by providing a unifying view of the subject.The students would have a chance to understand the behavior of magnetic fields in all astrophysical contexts, from cosmology to the Sun. From starbursting regions to AGNs in galaxies.

The school have presented a balanced yet complete review of our knowledge. Extensions into the unknown are also important to indicate present and future lines of research.