Lecture Notes for 029:194 Plasma Physics I (2008)
Week 1
Below are links to the scanned PDF versions of the lecture notes handed out in class:
- Lecture #1: Introduction to Plasmas
- Lecture #2: Characteristic Scales in a Plasma
- Lecture #3: Single Particle Motion in Constant Uniform Fields
- Lecture #4: Multiple Timescale Methods
- Lecture #5: Particle Motion in Constant, Nonuniform Magnetic Fields
- Lecture #6: Magnetic Moment and the Mirror Force
- Lecture #7: Particle Motion in Temporally Varying Magnetic Fields and Adiabatic Invariance
- Lecture #8: Computational Methods for Plasma Physics
- Lecture #9: Particle Motion in Slowly Varying Electric Fields and Polarization Drift
- Lecture #10: The Ponderomotive Force
- Lecture #11: Collisions and Resistivity
- Lecture #12: Kinetic Description of a Plasma
- Lecture #13: Moment Equations
- Lecture #14: The Two Fluid Equations
- Lecture #15: The Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Equations
- Lecture #16: The Frozen-in Flux Theorem
- Lecture #17: Magnetic Diffusion and Intro to MHD Waves
- Lecture #18: MHD Waves: Alfven, Fast, and Slow Waves
- Lecture #19: More About MHD Waves
- Lecture #20: MHD Wave Observations and MHD Equilibria
- Lecture #21: Force-Balanced MHD Equilibria
- Lecture #22: Waves in a Cold, Unmagnetized Plasma
- Lecture #23: Properties of Waves in Cold, Unmagnetized Plasmas
- Lecture #24: Cold vs. Warm Unmagnetized Plasma Waves
- Lecture #25: THe Holy Grail of Plasma Physics: Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion