phys374

Office hours: Send me email for any questions, any time.
We can set up follow-up appointments as needed.

We will follow to a large extent my class notes on 761, posted at http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~hassam/Book.
I will post extra notes as appropriate. The following texts are recommended:

                          - R. J. Goldston and P.H Rutherford: Introduction to Plasma Physics
                          - Arnab Choudhuri: The Physics of Fluids and Plasmas: An Introduction for Astrophysicists
                          - Russell Kulsrud: Plasma Physics for Astrophysicists
                          - Paul Bellan: Fundamentals of Plasma Physics
                          - Richard Fitzpatrick, The Physics of Plasmas (Lecture Notes), http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/plasma/plasma.html
                          - NRL Plasma Formulary, http://wwwppd.nrl.navy.mil/nrlformulary/NRL_FORMULARY_07.pdf

This is an introduction to plasma physics. Phys604 and Phys606 (or equivalents) are prerequisites. I will emphasise mathematical methods applicable to plasma physics and NL PDE's in general, especially asymptotic methods. We will begin with neutral fluids to establish the essentials of kinetic theory, collisions, ideal and dissipative fluid equations, collisional and collisionless limits, equilibrium, waves, and stability in fluids, transport (viscosity and thermal conduction), and nonlinear phenomena such as shocks. A parallel development will then be done for plasmas. This is a richer system, including three to four time scale hierarchies (as opposed to two for neutral fluids); plasmas will thus be classified by frequency regime, collisionality, super- or sub-sonic, linear and nonlinear. Applications will be made to lab low temperature plasmas, fusion plasmas, solar and magnetospheric physics, and astrophysical plasma phenomena. Topics will be drawn from the following: Boltzmann equation, collision operators, Chapman-Enskog theory, equilibrium, waves, stability, and transport, dissipation, Reynolds numbers, various collisiion frequencies, Vlasov equation, magnetized and unmagnetized plasmas, cold and warm plasmas, Navier-Stokes and Braginskii equations, MHD, NL waves, wave propagation, laser-plasma interactions, shocks and solitons.