  The major questions relevant to star and planet formation are: What controls
the rate, efficiency, spatial clustering, multiplicity, and initial mass
function of star formation, now and in the past? What are the major feedback
mechanisms through which star formation affects its environment? What controls
the formation and orbital parameters of planets, especially terrestrial
planets? These questions cannot be fully addressed without understanding key
magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and plasma physics processes. Although some of these
basic problems have long been considered intractable, attacking them through a
combination of laboratory experiment, theory, and numerical simulation is now
feasible, and would be fruitful. Achieving a better understanding of these
processes is critical to interpreting observations, and will form an important
component of astrophysical models. These models in turn will serve as inputs to
other areas of astrophysics, e.g. cosmology and galaxy formation.
