The MIST2025 conference, held in the scenic location of Cargèse at the Institut d’Études Scientifiques (IESC) on Corsica, France, featured contributions of four members of the star formation group. The conference itself brought together theorists and observers researching cosmic turbulence and magnetic fields, focusing on the physics of baryonic matter across times and scales.
The astronomy and astrophysical topics covered scales from magneto-hydrodynamic driven turbulence in proto-planetary disks to X-ray emission by plasma interactions in colliding galaxies. Physical processes such as star formation of the first stars and in nearby galaxies, radiative, supernova and cosmic ray feedback and their influence on turbulence of the interstellar medium were highlighted with talks by researchers of different levels. The plasma physics side featured talks about plasma theory, solar winds and their interactions with magnetic fields as well as magnetic reconnection. This wide range of topics in the conference agenda fostered interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration of scientists from different fields.
Karin Kjellgren talked about the impact of cosmic rays in Milky Way-like galaxies and their gamma-ray signatures. Gamma ray emission in galaxies is induced by cosmic ray interactions that are modeled by post-processing the Milky Way-like Rhea galaxy simulations (Göller et al. 2025, Kjellgren et al. 2025). The cosmic ray feedback launches weak outflows that magnetises and cools the circum-galactic medium.
Philipp Girichidis’ talk focused on magnetic fields in simulations of Milky Way-like galaxies. The magnetic field in the Milky Way-like Rhea simulation has a toroidal structure with varying prograde and retrograde regions. There are hints that these flips are related to star formation and feedback. This effect could likely be measured with the Faraday rotation measure.
Ralf Klessen reviewed the formation and properties of the first stars (Klessen et al. 2023). Once the gas in primordial composition goes into a run-away collapse, cooling is limited by the presence of molecular hydrogen gas. If the environment is in optimal composition, zero-age main-sequence masses of the first stars can reach up to a hundred thousand solar masses. However, feedback, physical models and the numerical resolution heavily determine the results in simulations.
Aron Kordt presented a poster highlighting feedback of the first stars and their influence on second-generation stars. Focusing on the first stars that explode as pair-instability supernovae at the lower explosion energy limit, second generation stars are likely ultra metal-poor stars. The time until a star of the second generation forms varies about one order of magnitude without a clear dependence on the external, environmental parameters.
The MIST2025 conference served as a platform for the exchange of knowledge and ideas across fields helping to understand cosmic turbulence and magnetic fields in the Universe. The shared topic, turbulence, attracted scientists from seemingly unrelated fields and it was a great opportunity to learn from each other and spark new ideas for research. We want to express our gratitude to the organisers for this conference and appreciate their effort as well as the scientific effort of all other other contributors!
More information about each contribution can be received by contacting the respective person by e-mail.
Göller, J., Girichidis, P., Brucy, N., et al. 2025 (arXiv), https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025arXiv250202646G
Kjellgren, K., Girichidis, P., Göller, J., et al. 2025, A&A, 700, A124
Klessen, R. S., & Glover, S. C. O. 2023, ARA&A, 61, 65
