Introduction to Plasma Physics and Its Applications 1100-3IPP
Program: The contents of the lectures (not necessarily in the order of this list) will include
• What is plasma? Distinctive features of the medium.
• Classification of plasmas.
• Description of plasmas: main approaches.
• Single-particle phenomena
• Fluid approach to plasma (two-fluid, one-fluid, magnetohydrodynamics)
• Waves in plasmas
• Instabilities in plasmas
• Diffusion in plasmas
• Equilibria and stationary states
• Kinetic theory of plasma
• The Vlasov equation and its linear modes
• Collisions in plasmas versus collisions in neutral gases. The Landau and Lenard-Balescu equations.
• Most important nonlinear phenomena in plasmas
• Weak turbulence, wave-wave interaction
• Strong plasma turbulence
• Nonlinear models of special phenomena
• Review of applications
• Methods of nuclear fusion. Fusion devices
Magnetic confinement
Inertial confinement
• Laser and particle beams in plasmas. Plasma accelerators
• Free-electron lasers
• Space plasmas. Ionosphere and magnetosphere
• Astrophysical plasmas
• Other applications
• If time allows: Numerical modelling in plasma physics
Bibliography
The classical plasma theory will be based on a few old testbooks:
F. Chen, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, 3rd ed., Springer, New York 2016
N. A. Krall and A.W. Trivelpiece, Principles of Plasma Physics, McGraw-Hill, New York 1973
N.G. van Kampen, B.U. Felderhof, Theoretical Methods in Plasma Physics, North-Holland, Amsterdam 1967
S. Ichimaru, Statistical Plasma Physics, Addison-Wesley, Redwood City 1992
A.G. Peeters, The Physics of Fusion Power, https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/research/cfsa/people/pastmembers/peeters/teaching/lnw.pdf , Warwick University, 2008
Additional information
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