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It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of turbulence
in astrophysics, or the challenges which it poses. Turbulence is responsible
for dynamical pressure support, energy transport, angular momentum transport,
chemical mixing, and magnetic field generation and evolution in a host
of astrophysical settings. Turbulent astrophysical flows differ from terrestrial
forms of turbulence which have been studied traditionally by virtue of
their inherent compressibility, strong radiative cooling, self-gravity,
and the importance in many environments of magnetic fields.
Recent years have seen important advances in several distinct
areas of astrophysical turbulence theory -- including modeling of turbulence
in stars, accretion disks, and the interstellar medium, as well basic studies
of MHD turbulence which provide the framework for all these applications.
In one star, the Sun, helioseismologic data are allowing increasingly sophisticated
comparison of observations with the theory of turbulent stellar interiors.
Attempts to model the solar differential rotation has shown clearly that
turbulent angular momentum transport is an essential ingredient, and attempts
to model it are improving. Solar dynamo calculations are only slightly
behind. Models of turbulent accretion disks are becoming increasingly realistic,
with the dynamical role of magnetic fields a crucial element, and global,
time-dependent modeling now feasible. It seems likely that the alpha\'\'
viscosity parameter will be soon be supplanted by ab initio calculations
of the accretion rate. Although the presence of interstellar turbulence
has long been recognized, recent theoretical studies have significantly
increased our understanding of its effects, particularly in the cold ISM
where it plays a dominant role. Self-consistent dynamical studies will
soon be able to identify how strong turbulence evolves and shapes the internal
structure of magnetized interstellar clouds. Basic studies in MHD turbulence
have made substantial recent progress in such longstanding problems as
the nature of the turbulent cascade, dynamo generation of fields, and the
process of magnetic reconnection.
In all of these studies, a crucial new ingredient has
been computational advances that now make possible direct hydrodynamic/MHD
simulations of three-dimensional, time-dependent turbulence with inertial
dynamic ranges of more than two orders of magnitude. These advances in
numerical experimentation are inspiring new analytical work, new comparisons
between models and observations, and advances in observations and data
analysis themselves. The ITP program on Astrophysical Turbulence will provide
a forum for intensive interaction among analytical theorists, computational
physicists, and observers from all of the subspecialties, with prospects
for major research progress through interdisciplinary discussions and collaborations.
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