The Need for Plasma Astrophysics in Understanding Life Cycles of Active
  Galaxies
  In this White Paper, we emphasize the need for and the important role of
plasma astrophysics in the studies of formation, evolution of, and feedback by
Active Galaxies. We make three specific recommendations: 1) We need to
significantly increase the resolution of VLA, perhaps by building an EVLA-II at
a modest cost. This will provide the angular resolution to study jets at kpc
scales, where, for example, detailed Faraday rotation diagnosis can be done at
1GHz transverse to jets; 2) We need to build coordinated programs among NSF,
NASA, and DOE to support laboratory plasma experiments (including liquid metal)
that are designed to study key astrophysical processes, such as
magneto-rotational instability (origin of angular momentum transport), dynamo
(origin of magnetic fields), jet launching and stability. Experiments allowing
access to relativistic plasma regime (perhaps by intense lasers and magnetic
fields) will be very helpful for understanding the stability and dissipation
physics of jets from Supermassive Black Holes; 3) Again through the coordinated
support among the three Agencies, we need to invest in developing comprehensive
theory and advanced simulation tools to study the accretion disks and jets in
relativistic plasma physics regime, especially in connecting large scale fluid
scale phenomena with relativistic kinetic dissipation physics through which
multi-wavelength radiation is produced.
