Preface"New physics" is an appealing new keyword, not yet devalued by the ravages of inflation. But what has this to do with such an ugly field as plasma physics, steeped in classical physics, mostly outworn, with all its unsolved and ambiguous technological problems and its messy and open ended numerical studies?"New physics" is concerned with quarks, Higgs particles, grand unified theory, superstrings, gravitational waves, and the profound basics of cosmology and black holes. It is the field of astonishing quantum effects, demonstrated by the von Klitzing effect and hightemperature superconductors. But what can plasma physicists offer, after so many years of expensive and frustrating research to solve the problem of fusion energy?One may suggest that the fascinating research of chaos with applications to plasma, or the achievements of statistical mechanics applied to plasmas, has something to offer and should be the subject of attention. However, this is not the aim of this book.Complementing the traditional aim of physics, which is to interpret the phenomena of nature by generalizing laws such that exact predictions about new properties and effects can be drawn, this book demonstrates how new physics has been derived over the last 30 years from the state of matter which exists at high temperatures (plasma). The advent of the laser, with its very high energy densities and its concentration to extremely small volumes and to very short time periods, opened up a whole new regime for the interaction of materials and high-density plasmas, which enforced the appearance of the "rather new physics".Here are a few examples:• Who would have expected that optical waves in vacuum have a longitudinal component? Thomas Young discovered in 1801 the pure transversality of optical radiation. This was not understandable at that time, when it was known that mechanical waves never exist without longitudinal components. Maxwell's equation then only revealed solutions of the purely transverse plane waves in electromagnetism. Against all this traditional knowledge, the recent findings about the dynamics of electrons driven by laser beams by nonlinear forces led to thẽ xact derivation of longitudinal optical wave components.• The same nonlinear force interaction, in view of momentum transfer in experiments, led to the clarification of the angular momentum ofoptical beams and brought about the first substantiation of the photon spin by a macroscopic property.• The conditions of very high laser intensities led to nonlinear and relativistic generalization of the optical response (dielectrics and absorption) with a prediction of relativistic self-focusing to understand how GeV ions are produced by laser irradiation of solid targets.• The quantum generalization of Coulomb collisions in plasmas at high temperatures explains the anomalous resistivity, in agreement with observations where links are given between the simply derived Coulomb collision frequency and quantum electrodynamics, including stimulated emission. IX that after the first l...