The ?2007 ICTP Summer College on Plasma Physics'' was held at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy, during the period 30 July to 24 August 2007. The purpose of the summer college was to provide training for young scientists from all over the world, mainly from third world countries, and to give them the opportunity to interact with senior scientists in an informal manner. A large number of talks were given by invited speakers and experts, with information about the most recent advances in magnetic confinement fusion and tokamak physics, intense laser?plasma interactions and plasma-based particle acceleration, turbulence, dusty plasmas, and the emerging field of quantum plasmas. A selected number of papers from the invited speakers appear in this book.

This book is planned to introduce the advances topics of plasma physics for research scholars and postgraduate students. This book deals with basic concepts in plasma physics, non-equilibrium plasma modeling, space plasma applications, and plasma diagnostics. It also provides an overview of the linear and nonlinear aspects of plasma physics. Chapters cover such topics as plasma application in space propulsion, microwave–plasma interaction, plasma antennas, solitary waves, and plasma diagnostic techniques.

Advances in Plasma Physics Research

'The review articles in this series are invariably of a high standard, and those contained in the most recent volumes to appear are no exception....an excellent fund of detailed and reasonably up-to-date information.' -Journal of Plasma Physics, from a review of a previous volume Volume 19 offers plasma physicists detailed studies on paraxial WKB solution of a scalar wave equation, multiple-mirror plasma confinement, and plasma rotation in tokamaks.

Beginning at an introductory level, this text presents a thorough treatment of plasma physics, including an extensive discussion of its applications in thermonuclear fusion research. A novel feature of this book is its comprehensive description of the various concepts and formulas widely used in fusion theory based on the fundamental equations of the plasma fluid. The physics of fusion plasmas is explained mainly in relation to recent progress in tokamak research, but other plasma confinement schemes, such as stellarators and inertial confinement, are also described. The unique and systematic presentation will help readers to understand the overall structure of plasma theory and will facilitate access to more advanced literature on special topics.

In the interest of speed and economy the notation of the orig inal text has been retained so that the cross product of two vectors A and B is denoted by [AB], the dot product by (AB), the Laplacian operator by ~. etc. It might also be worth pointing out that the temperature is frequently expressed in energy units in the Soviet literature so that the Boltzmann constant will be missing in various familiar expressions. In matters of terminology, whenever pos sible several forms are used when a term is first introduced, e. g. , magnetoacoustic and magnetosonic waves, "probkotron" and mirror machine, etc. It is hoped in this way to help the reader to relate the terms used here with those in existing translations and with the conventional nomenclature. In general the system of literature citation used in the bibliographies follows that of the American Institute of Physics "Soviet Physics" series. Except for the cor rection of some obvious misprints the text is that of the original. We wish to express our gratitude to Academician Leontovich for kindly providing the latest corrections and additions to the Russian text. v CONTENTS Steady-State Plasma Flow in a Magnetic Field A. I. Morozov and L. S. Solov'ev Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter 1. Acceleration Mechanisms , • • • • • • • • • • . 2 §1. Microscopic Picture of Plasma Acceleration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 §2.

A groundbreaking textbook on twenty-first-century plasma physics and its applications Kip Thorne and Roger Blandford’s monumental Modern Classical Physics is now available in five stand-alone volumes that make ideal textbooks for individual graduate or advanced undergraduate courses on statistical physics; optics; elasticity and fluid dynamics; plasma physics; and relativity and cosmology. Each volume teaches the fundamental concepts, emphasizes modern, real-world applications, and gives students a physical and intuitive understanding of the subject. Plasma Physics provides an essential introduction to the subject. A gas that is significantly ionized, usually by heating or photons, a plasma is composed of electrons and ions and sometimes has an embedded or confining magnetic field. Plasmas play a major role in many contemporary applications, phenomena, and fields, including attempts to achieve controlled thermonuclear fusion using magnetic or inertial confinement; in explanations of radio wave propagation in the ionosphere and the behavior of the solar corona and wind; and in astrophysics, where plasmas are responsible for emission throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, including from black holes, highly magnetized neutron stars, and ultrarelativistic outflows. The book also can serve as supplementary reading for many other courses, including in astrophysics, geophysics, and controlled fusion. Includes many exercise problems Features color figures, suggestions for further reading, extensive cross-references, and a detailed index Optional “Track 2” sections make this an ideal book for a one-quarter or one-semester course An online illustration package is available to professors The five volumes, which are available individually as paperbacks and ebooks, are Statistical Physics; Optics; Elasticity and Fluid Dynamics; Plasma Physics; and Relativity and Cosmology.

The physics of plasmas is an extremely rich and complex subject as the variety of topics addressed in this book demonstrates. This richness and complexity demands new and powerful techniques for investigating plasma physics. An outgrowth from his graduate course teaching, now with corrections, Tajima's text provides not only a lucid introduction to computational plasma physics, but also offers the reader many examples of the way numerical modeling, properly handled, can provide valuable physical understanding of the nonlinear aspects so often encountered in both laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. Included here are computational methods for modern nonlinear physics as applied to hydrodynamic turbulence, solitons, fast reconnection of magnetic fields, anomalous transports, dynamics of the sun, and more. The text contains examples of problems now solved using computational techniques including those concerning finite-size particles, spectral techniques, implicit differencing, gyrokinetic approaches, and particle simulation.

The book describes a statistical approach to the basics of plasma physics.