Fundamentals of Plasma Physics

CONTENTS 1. General Properties of Plasmas 1.1 Definition of a Plasma 1.2 Plasma as the Fourth State of Matter 1.3 Plasma Production 1.4 Particle Interactions and Collective Effects 1.5 Some Basic Plasma Phenomena 2. Criteria for the De.nition of a Plasma 2.1 Macroscopic Neutrality 2.2 Debye Shielding 2.3 The Plasma Frequency 3. The Occurrence of Plasmas in Nature 3.1 The Sun and its Atmosphere 3.2 The Solar Wind 3.3 The Magnetosphere and the Van Allen Radiation Belts 3.4 The Ionosphere 3.5 Plasmas Beyond the Solar System 4. Applications of Plasma Physics 4.1 Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion 4.2 The Magnetohydrodynamic Generator 4.3 Plasma Propulsion 4.4 Other Plasma Devices 5. Theoretical Description of Plasma Phenomena 5.1 General Considerations on a Self-Consistent Formulation 5.2 Theoretical Approaches Problems 1. Introduction 2. Energy Conservation 3. Uniform Electrostatic Field 4. Uniform Magnetostatic Field 4.1 Formal Solution of the Equation of Motion 4.2 Solution in Cartesian Coordinates 4.3 Magnetic Moment 4.4 Magnetization Current 5. Uniform Electrostatic and Magnetostatic Fields 5.1 Formal Solution of the Equation of Motion 5.2 Solution in Cartesian Coordinates 6. Drift Due to an External Force Problems 1. Introduction 2. Spatial Variation of the Magnetic Field 2.1 Divergence Terms 2.2 Gradient and Curvature Terms 2.3 Shear Terms 3. Equation of Motion in the First Order Approximation 4. Average Force Over One Gyration Period 4.1 Parallel Force 4.2 Perpendicular Force 4.3 Total Average Force 5. Gradient Drift 6. Parallel Acceleration of the Guiding Center 6.1 Invariance of the Orbital Magnetic Moment and of the Magnetic Flux 6.2 Magnetic Mirror Effect 6.3 The Longitudinal Adiabatic Invariant 7. Curvature Drift 8. Combined Gradient-Curvature Drift Problems 1. Introduction 2. Slowly Time-Varying Electric Field 2.1 Equation of Motion and Polarization Drift 2.2 Plasma Dielectric Constant 3. Electric Field with Arbitrary Time Variation 3.1 Solution of the

From the reviews of the third edition:



"This is an excellent introductory textbook of plasma physics, especially recommendable to those starting the study of the subject. ... the book is an immense monography of 678 pages. Our impressions are good ... ." (Iván Abonyi, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1084, 2006)