Laboratory Investigations of the Extreme Universe

Recent years have seen tremendous progress in our understanding of theextreme universe, which in turn points to even deeper questions to be furtheraddressed. History has shown that the symbiosis between direct observations andlaboratory investigations is instrumental in the progress of astrophysics.Current frontier astrophysical phenomena related to particle astrophysics andcosmology typically involve one or more of the following conditions: (1)extremely high energy events;(2) very high density, high temperature processes;(3) super strong field environments. Laboratory experiments using highintensity lasers and particle beams can calibrate astrophysical observation ordetection processes, investigate the underlying dynamics of astrophysicalphenomena, and probe fundamental physics in extreme limits. We give examples ofpossible laboratory experiments that investigate into the extreme universe.