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Contents
Contents
Plasma Physics
Richard Fitzpatrick
Professor of Physics
The University of Texas at Austin
Contents
Plasma Parameters
What is Plasma?
Brief History of Plasma Physics
Fundamental Parameters
Plasma Frequency
Debye Shielding
Plasma Parameter
Collisions
Magnetized Plasmas
Plasma Beta
De Broglie Wavelength
Exercises
Charged Particle Motion
Introduction
Motion in Uniform Fields
Method of Averaging
Guiding Center Motion
Magnetic Drifts
Invariance of Magnetic Moment
Poincaré Invariants
Adiabatic Invariants
Magnetic Mirrors
Van Allen Radiation Belts
Equatorial Ring Current
Second Adiabatic Invariant
Third Adiabatic Invariant
Exercises
Collisions
Introduction
Collision Operator
Two-Body Elastic Collisions
Boltzmann Collision Operator
Collisional Conservation Laws
Two-Body Coulomb Collisions
Rutherford Scattering Cross-Section
Landau Collision Operator
Rosenbluth Potentials
Coulomb Logarithm
Boltzmann H-Theorem
Collision Operator for Maxwellian Distributions
Moments of Collision Operator
Collision Times
Exercises
Plasma Fluid Theory
Introduction
Moments of Distribution Function
Moments of Collision Operator
Moments of Kinetic Equation
Fluid Equations
Entropy Production
Fluid Closure
Chapman-Enskog Closure
Braginskii Equations
Unmagnetized Limit
Magnetized Limit
Normalization of Braginskii Equations
Cold-Plasma Equations
MHD Equations
Drift Equations
Closure in Collisionless Magnetized Plasmas
Langmuir Sheaths
Langmuir Probes
Exercises
Waves in Cold Plasmas
Introduction
Plane Waves in Homogeneous Plasmas
Cold-Plasma Dielectric Permittivity
Cold-Plasma Dispersion Relation
Wave Polarization
Cutoff and Resonance
Waves in Unmagnetized Plasmas
Low-Frequency Wave Propagation
Parallel Wave Propagation
Perpendicular Wave Propagation
Exercises
Waves in Inhomogeneous Plasmas
Introduction
WKB Solutions
Cutoffs
Resonances
Resonant Layers
Collisional Damping
Pulse Propagation
Ray Tracing
Ionospheric Radio Wave Propagation
Exercises
Waves in Warm Plasmas
Introduction
Landau Damping
Physics of Landau Damping
Plasma Dispersion Function
Ion Acoustic Waves
Waves in Magnetized Plasmas
Parallel Wave Propagation
Perpendicular Wave Propagation
Electrostatic Waves
Velocity-Space Instabilities
Counter-Propagating Beam Instability
Current-Driven Ion Acoustic Instability
Harris Instability
Exercises
Magnetohydrodynamic Fluids
Introduction
Magnetic Pressure
Flux Freezing
MHD Waves
Solar Wind
Parker Model of Solar Wind
Interplanetary Magnetic Field
Mass and Angular Momentum Loss
MHD Dynamo Theory
Homopolar Disk Dynamo
Slow and Fast Dynamos
Cowling Anti-Dynamo Theorem
Ponomarenko Dynamo
MHD Shocks
Parallel MHD Shocks
Perpendicular MHD Shocks
Oblique MHD Shocks
Exercises
Magnetic Reconnection
Introduction
Reduced-MHD Equations
Linearized Reduced-MHD Equations
Asymptotic Matching
Tearing Modes
Resistive Kink Modes
Constant-
Magnetic Islands
Constant-
Magnetic Island Evolution
Sweet-Parker Reconnection
Plasmoid Instability
Exercises
Bibliography
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Magnetic Islands
Magnetic Island Evolution