AST551 General Plasma Physics 1

Fall 1996

Syllabus

Basic Description of a Plasma

  • Fundamental Space and Time Scales
  • Plasma Parameter
  • Debye Shielding
  • Plasma Oscillations

    Single Particle Motion

  • Adiabatic Constants
  • Trapping in Mirrors
  • Confinement
  • Drifts

    Plasma Models

  • Kinetic Descriptions
  • Two Fluid Equations
  • Magneto-Hydrodynamic(MHD) Equations
  • MHD Equilibria

    Collisions

  • Basic Binary Collisions
  • Long-Range Character of Collisions
  • Friction, Energy Scattering, Pitch-Angle Scattering
  • Fokker-Planck Equation
  • Plasma Transport

    Radiation

  • Synchrotron
  • Bremsstrahlung

    Waves and Instabilities

  • Electro-magnetic Waves
  • Alfven Waves
  • Ion Acoustic Waves
  • Kinetic Treatment of Waves
  • Landau Damping

    Fusion

  • Fusion Cross-Section
  • Ignition
  • Lawson Criterion
  • Magnetic Confinement

    Partially Ionized Plasma